150 Baron Humboldt on the Mountain^chains and 



peak covered with saline substances, pumice-stone, and volcanic 

 ashes in decomposition. A Chinese author of the seventh cen- 

 tury says : At J200 le^ or fifteen leagues, to the north of the city 

 of Kwei-chow (now Koutche), in about the latitude of 41° 37 and 

 longitude 80° 35' E., according to the astronomical determina- 

 tion of the missionaries made in the country of the Eleuths, rises 

 the Pechan, which emits fire and smoke without interruption. 

 It is from thence sal ammoniac is brought ; upon one of the de- 

 clivities of the Fiery Mountain (Ho-tcheou), all the stones burn, 

 melt, and flow to a distance of some tens of le. The fused mass * 

 hardens as it becomes cold. The natives use it in disorders f 

 as a medicine: sulphur is also found there. 



M. Klaproth observes, that this mountain is now called Kha- 

 lar J, and that, conformably to the account given by the Bok- 

 hars, who bring to Siberia sal-ammoniac (called nao-^ha in 

 Chinese, and noshader in Persian), the mountains to the south of 

 Korgos is so abundant in this species of salt, that the natives 

 frequently employ it as a means of paying their tribute to the 

 Emperor of China, In a recent Description of Central Asia, 



* The history of the Chinese dynasty Tang, speaking of the lava from the 

 Pih-shan, states that it ran like liquid fat — Klaproth. 



•\ This is not lava, but the saline particles which appear in the form of an 

 efflorescence on its surface. 



+ The Pih-shan of the ancient Chinese, at present has the Turk name of 

 Eshik-bosh ; Eshik is a species of goat, and bash signifies " head." Sulphur 

 is produced there in abundance. The Eshik-bash belongs to the elevated 

 mountains, which, in the time of the Wei dynasty (the third century) bound- 

 ed, to the north-west, the kingdom of Kwei-tsu (Ku-cha) ; it is the Aghi- 

 shan under the Suy dynasty (in the early moiety of the seventh century). 

 The history of this dynasty relates that this mountain always shewed fire 

 and smoke, and that sal-ammoniac was obtained there. In the description of 

 the western country, which furms a part of the history of the Tang dynas- 

 ty, we find that the mountain in question was then called Aghi-teen-shan 

 (which may be translated " mountain of fields of fire"), or Pih-shan (" white 

 mountain"), that it was to the north of the city of Ilolo, and that it emitted 

 perpetual fire. Ilolo (or perhaps Irolo, Ilor, or Irol) was then the residence 

 of the King of Kwei-tsu. 



The Eshik-bash is to the north of Ku-cha, and 200 leagues to the west of 

 the Kan-tengri, which forms part of the chain of the Teen-chan. The Eshik- 

 bash is very large, and much sulphur and sal-ammoniac is even now col- 

 lected there. It gives birth to the river Eshik-bash-gol, which flows to the 

 south of the city of Kucha, and falls, after a course of 200 /<?, into the 

 Erghew. 



