Volcanoes of Central A i>ia. SS'3 



the Ala-tau *, between lakes Balkash and Alak-tugulnoor, and 

 then beyond the course of the Ele, to the eastward of the Te- 

 moortu-nor (between lat. 44° and 49°), and which present the 

 appearance of a wall occasionally interrupted on the side of the 

 Kirghiz steppe. 



It is quite otherwise with the portion of Central Asia, which 

 is bounded by the second and third systems of mountains, the 

 Himalaya and Kwan-lun. In fact, it is closed to the west in a 

 very evident manner by a transverse ridge, which is prolonged 

 from south to north, under the name of Bolor or Beloortagh + 

 This chain separates Little from Great Bucharia, and from 

 Cashgar, Badakshan and the Upper Jihoon or Amoodaria. Its 

 southern portion, which connects with the system of Kwan-lun 

 mountains, forms, according to the denomination used by the 

 Chinese, a part of the Tsung-ling. To the north it joins the 

 chain which passes to the north-west of Cashgar, and bears the 

 name of the defile of Cashgar {Cashgar-dlvan or davcai), ac- 

 cording to the narrative of NasarofF, who, in 1813, travelled as 



• This is a name which has occasioned much confusion. The Kirghiz, 

 particularly those of the grand horde, give the title of Ala-tagh {Alatau, 

 ' speckled mountains') to a series of elevations extending from west to east, 

 under the parallels of 43° 30' to 45', from the Upper Sihoon (Syr-daria or 

 Jaxartes), near Tonkat, towards lakes Balkashi and Temoortu. The eastern 

 portion of the Ala-tau rises considerably at the great sinuosity made by the 

 Sihoon to the north-west, and connects with the Kara.tau ('Black Moun- 

 tain') at Taras or Turkestan. The natives likewise give the name of Ala- 

 tau to the mountains to the south of the Tarbagatay between lakes Ala-kul, 

 Balkashi, and Temoortu. Is it from these denominations that geographers 

 have been in the habit of calling the whole second system of mountains that 

 of Tesn-shan, Alak or Ala-tau ? The Oolug-tagh, or ' Great Mountain,' 

 named on some maps Oulug-tag Oolu-tau, and Ooluk-tagh, must not be con- 

 founded with the Ala-tau or Ala-taghi. 



-|- According to M. Klaproth, this transversal ridge is named in Ouigoor 

 Boolyt-tagh, ' Cloudy Mountain', on account of the extraordinary rains which 

 fall uninterruptedly in this latitude during three months. AVest of this 

 transverse ridge of Beloor, is the station of Pamir, nearly under the parallel 

 of Cashgar. Marco Polo has named after this station a table-land, of which 

 modern geographers have made sometimes a chain of mountains, sometimes 

 a province situated farther to the south. This district is still interesting to 

 the naturalist, on account of the celebrated Venetian Traveller having first 

 observed there a fact, which has so often occurred in my experience, at con- 

 siderable elevations, in the New World, namely, that it is extremely difiicult 

 to light and to keep fire in there. 



JULY SEPTEMBER 1831. a 



