ILLUSTRATIONS (10). MOUNTAIN CHAINS OF ASIA. 65 



erupted fire and streams of lava at least as late as the middle 

 of the seventh century ; the great snow-covered massive ele- 

 vation of Bogdo-Oola ; the Solfatara of Urumtsi, which fur- 

 nishes sulphur and sal-ammoniac (nao-scha), and lies in a 

 coal district ; the volcano of Turfan (or volcano of Ho-tscheu 

 or Bischbalik), almost midway between the meridians of 

 Turfan (Kune Turpan), and of Pidjan, and which is still in 

 a state of activity. The volcanic eruptions of the Thian-schan 

 chain reach, according to Chinese historians, as far back as 

 the year 89, a.d., when the Hiongnu were pursued by the 

 Chinese from the sources of the Irtysch as far as Kutch and 

 Kharaschar* 1 . The Chinese General, Teu-hian, crossed the 

 Thian-schan, and saw " the Fire Mountains, which sent out 

 masses of molten rock that flow to the distance of many Z^." 

 The great distance of the volcanoes of the interior of Asia 

 from the sea coast is a remarkable and isolated phenomenon. 

 Abel Remusat, in a letter to Cordierf , first directed the atten- 

 tion of geologists to this fact. This distance, for instance, 

 in the case of the volcano of Pe-schan, from the north or the 

 Icy Sea at the mouth of the Obi, is 1528 miles; and from the 

 south or the mouths of the Indus and the Ganges, 1512 miles; 

 so central is the position of fire- emitting volcanoes in the 

 Asiatic continent. To the west its distance from the Caspian 

 at the Gulf of Karuboghaz, is 1360 miles, and from the 

 east shores of the Lake of Aral, 1020 miles. The active 

 volcanoes of the New World had hitherto offered the most 

 remarkable examples of great distance from the sea coast, 

 but in the case of the volcano of Popocateptl, in Mexico, 

 this distance is only one hundred and thirty-two miles, and 

 only ninety-two, one hundred and four, and one hundred 

 and fifty-six, respectively in the South American volca- 

 noes Sangai, Tolima, and de la Fragua. All extinct vol- 

 canoes, and all trachytic mountains, which have no perma- 

 nent connexion with the interior of the earth, have been 

 excluded from these statements J. East of the volcano of 

 Turfat, and of the fruitful Oasis of Hami, the chain of the 

 Thian-schan merges into the great elevated tract of Gobi, 

 which runs in a S.W. and N.E. direction. This interruption 



* Klaproth, Tableau hist, de VAsie, p. 108. 

 • t Annate des Mines, t. v. 1820, p. 137. 

 % Asie centrale, t. ii. pp. 16—55, 69—77, 341, 356. & 



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