TRUfc VOLCANOES. 407 



mountain (Hotsclien) of Turfan, from the shores of the Polar 

 Sea and the Indian Ocean, are almost equally great, about 

 1480 and 1520 miles. On the other hand, the distance of 

 Pe-shan, whose eruptions of lava are separately recorded 

 from the year 89 of our era up to the 7th century in Chi- 

 nese works, from the great mountain lake of Issikul to the 

 descent of the Temurtutagh (a western portion of the Thian- 

 shan), is only 172 miles ; while from the more northerly 

 situated lake of Balkasch, 148 miles in length, it is 208 miles 

 distant.* The great Dsaisang lake, in the neighborhood of 

 which I was during my stay in the Chinese Dsungarei in 

 1829, is 360 miles distant from the volcanoes of Thian-shan. 

 Inland waters are, therefore, not wanting, but they are cer- 

 tainly not in such propinquity as that which the Caspian Sea 

 bears to the still active volcano of Demavcnd, in the Persian 

 Mazenderan. 



While, however, basins of water, whether oceanic or in- 

 land, may not be requisite for the maintenance of volcanic 

 activity yet, if islands and coasts, as I am inclined to be- 

 lieve, abound more in volcanoes only because the elevation 

 of the latter, produced by internal elastic forces, is accom- 

 panied by a neighboring depression in the basin of the sea,f 



the southeast of India considered to be connected, and were frequently 

 confounded together. Thus we read, lib. ii., p. 130, " India, the larg- 

 est and most favored country, which terminates at the Eastern Sea 

 and at the Atlantic South Sea;" and again, lib. xv., p. 689, "the 

 southern and eastern sides of India, which are much larger than the 

 other sides, run into the Atlantic Sea," in which passage, as well as 

 in the one above quoted regarding Thinas (lib. i., p. 65), the expres- 

 sion, "Eastern Sea" is even avoided. Having been uninterruptedly 

 occupied since the year 1792 with the strike and inclination of the 

 mountain strata, and their relation to the bearings of the ranges of 

 mountains, I have thought it right to point attention to the fact that, 

 taken in the mean, the equatorial distance of the Kuen-liin, throughout 

 its whole extent, as well as in its western prolongation by the Hindti- 

 Kho, points toward the basin of the Mediterranean Sea and the Straits 

 of Gibraltar (Asie Centr., t. i., p. 118-127, and t. ii., p. 115-118), and 

 that the sinking of the bed of the sea in a great basin which is vol- 

 canic, especially in the northern margin, may very possibly be con- 

 nected with this upheaval and folding in. My friend, Elie de Beau- 

 mont, so thoroughly acquainted with all that relates to geological bear- 

 ings, is opposed to these views on loxodromical principles (Notice sur 

 les Systemes de Montagn.es, 1852, t. ii., p. 667). 



* See above, p. 336. 



t See Arago, Sur la cause de la degression d'une grandee parte de 

 1'Asie et sur le phenomene que les pentes les plus rapides des chaines 

 de montagnes sont (ge'ne'ralement) tourneee vers la mer la plus voisina, 

 in his Astronomic Ptynilaire, t. Hi., p. 1266-1274. 



