232 Baron Humboldt on the Mountain-chains and 



loskoy, where geographers are accustomed to place the Alghinic 

 mountains, the name of which is entirely unknown by the 

 Kirghiz of Troitsk and of Orenburg. 



" II. System of the Teen-Shan. — Their mean latitude is 42°. 

 Their culminating point is perhaps the mass of mountain re- 

 markable by its three peaks, covered with eternal snows, and 

 celebrated under the name of Bokhda-ula, or ' Holy Mountain,' 

 in the Mongol-Calmuc tongue ; which has caused Pallas to give 

 to the whole chain the denomination of Bogdo. From the 

 Bokhda-ula, the Teen-shan runs easterly towards Barkoul, 

 where, to the north of Hami, it sinks abruptl}', and spreads it- 

 self to the level of the high desert called the Great Gobi, or 

 Sharao, which extends south-west and north-east, from Kwa- 

 chow, a town of China, to the sources of the Argun. Mount 

 Nomkhun, to the north-west of the Sogok and the Sobo, little 

 lakes of the steppe, denotes perhaps by its position, a slight 

 swell, an angle in the desert ; for after an interruption of at 

 least ten degrees of longitude, there appears, a little more to the 

 south than the Teen-shan, in my opinion, as a continuation of 

 this system, at the great bend of the Hwang- ho, or Yellow 

 River, the snowy chain of the Gajar, or Yn-shan, which runs 

 likewise from west to east, under the parallels of 41° and 42°, 

 consequently to the north of the country of Ordos. 



" Let us now return to the neighbourhood of Toorfan and 

 the Bokhda-ula, and follow the western prolongation of the 

 second system of mountains ; we shall perceive that it extends 

 between Gulja (Ele), the place whither the Chinese government 

 exiles criminals, and Kucha ; then between Temoortu, a large 

 lake, the name of which signifies ' ferruginous water,' and Aksu, 

 to the north of Cashgar, and runs towards Smarkand. The 

 country comprised between the first and second systems of moun- 

 tains, or between the Altai and the Teen-shan, is closed on the 

 east, beyond the meridian of Peking, by the Khingkhan-ula, a 

 mountainous crest which runs SSW. and NNE. ; but to the 

 west it is entirely open on the side of the Chwei, the Sarasu and 

 the lower Sihoon. In this part there is no transverse ridge, 

 provided, at least, we do not regard as such the series of eleva- 

 tions which extend north and south, to the west of lake Zaisang, 

 across the Targabatay, as far as the north-eastern extremity of 



2 



