Eastern Asia. 357 



gin of the high central plateau ; the Soliman the eastern margin of 

 the table-land of Iran, — the one on the north, the other on the 

 south ; so that these two solid masses touch each other at their op- 

 posite angles, south-west and north-east. The remarkable point 

 where these high ranges intersect, and the table-land and the plains, 

 spread out at their feet, touch each other, is the Hindo-Khu. These 

 features of relief sever the continent into two parts, of almost equal 

 extent, but of very unequal importance ; Eastern Asia on the one 

 side, and Western Asia and Europe on the other, — the Mongolian 

 races and the White races. 



This separation is so deeply marked in nature and in the nations, 

 that even the ancients, with the practical sense belonging to them, 

 made a division of Asia intra Imaum and Asia extra Imaum, that 

 is, Asia this side, and Asia beyond the Bolor and the Hindo-Khu, as 

 they also divided the north and the south into Scythia — Nomadic 

 Asia — and Asia Proper, or civilized Asia. 



Eastern Asia forms, in fact, a continent by itself alone. A vast 

 pile of high lands, a plateau in the form of a trapezium, occupies the 

 entire centre, and forms the principal mass. It seems to invade 

 everything ; it is the prominent feature, and gives a distinctive phy- 

 siognomy to the continent. It is surrounded on all sides by lofty 

 ranges capped with snow, which seem, like towering ramparts, to 

 guard it from attack, and to isolate it on every side. On the south 

 the Himalaya, on the west the Bolor, on the north the Altai, on the 

 east the Khin-gan, and the Yun-Ling form an enclosure almost un- 

 broken, the detached summits of which belong to the loftiest moun- 

 tains of the earth. A small number of natural entrances lead to 

 the interior, or give an exit from it. The only gate which offers 

 some facility is Zungary, between the Thian-Shan and the Altai ; 

 evei'ywhere else, high and frozen passes. 



The interior of this vast enclosure is cut by numerous chains, the 

 highest of which — those of the Kuenlun on the south, and of the 

 the Thian-Shan on the north — are parallel to the Himalaya and 

 the Altai, and divide the soil into several basins or high bot- 

 toms. In all this extent, no fertile and easily cultivated plain ; 

 everywhere stretch the steppes, a dry and cold desert, or seas of 

 drifting sand. Nevertheless, a considerable depression in Eastern 

 Turkestan, where the Tarim flows, and whose bottom is marked by 

 Lake Lop, allows the cultivation of the vine and the cotton-tree, at 

 the foot of the Thian-Shan ; but this is an exception. Apart from 

 some privileged localities, nature here does not permit a regular till- 

 age, and dooms the tribes of these regions to the life of shepherds 

 and herdsmen, — the nomadic life. 



Around this central mass, towards the four winds of heaven, ex- 

 tend, at its feet, broad and low plains, watered by the rivers pouring 

 down from its heights, which rank among tho largest in the world. 

 On the north is the most extensive but the least important, tho 



