ASIA. 



ASIA the most extensive, the most diversified, 

 and, so far as the early history of mankind 

 is concerned, the most interesting of the great 

 divisions of the globe is situated between lat. 

 i 28' and 78 north, and long. 26 and 190 east. It 

 thus occupies the greater portion of the Eastern 

 Hemisphere, and is bounded on the north by the 

 Arctic Ocean ; east, by the Pacific ; south, by the 

 Indian Ocean ; and west, by Africa and Europe 

 being separated from the former by the Red Sea 

 and the Isthmus of Suez ; and from the latter, by 

 the Mediterranean, Black Sea, Caucasus chain, 

 Caspian Sea, and the Ural Mountains. The 

 region thus inclosed lies compactly together, the 

 only irregularities in its bounding outline being 

 that succession of peninsular projections and inter- 

 vening gulfs which give character to its eastern 

 and southern sea-board. Its greatest length, along 

 the 40th parallel, is 5500 miles ; the greatest 

 breadth, from Cape Romania, in the Malayan 

 Peninsula, to North-east Cape, along the io4th 

 meridian, 5300 miles; its area is estimated at 

 upwards of 16,000,000 square miles, or above four 

 times that of Europe. 



SUPERFICIAL FEATURES, ETC. 



The most striking feature in the surface of 



Asia is the great table-land of Tibet, which rises 



between India and Mongolia, like a mountain 



with a flattened top, spreading out over a 



70 



space equal to two or three European countries, 

 Tibet has an elevation of 15,000 feet that of 

 the summit of Mont Blanc and it is the most 

 extensive, and in every way the most remarkable 

 of the table-lands which exist on the surface of 

 the globe. On the south, its upturned edge forms 

 the Himalaya Mountains, which look down upon 

 the plains of India ; on the north, it terminates in 

 the Kuen Lun. Beyond this chain it sinks to a 

 lower table-land that of Mongolia which runs 

 north-eastward from Western Tibet to the upper 

 basin of the Amour River, at an elevation of less 

 than 4000 feet. Round these two central table- 

 lands of Tibet and Mongolia, the mountains and 

 other highlands of Asia may be grouped. East- 

 ward, the highlands of Tibet are continued by 

 those of Southern China, which, furrowed and 

 hollowed into great valleys by the rivers which 

 traverse them, have lost the form of a plateau, and 

 assumed that of a mountainous country. Between 

 China and India, there projects, from Eastern 

 Tibet, the highland of Indo-China, which, as it 

 proceeds southwards, splits into a series of moun- 

 tain chains, running like so many fingers from the 

 back of a hand, and inclosing between them the 

 valleys of Burmah, Siam, Cambodia, and Ton- 

 quin. Towards the north-west, the edge of the 

 great Tibetan table-land is continued by the 

 Pamir table-land, a lofty elevation without abrupt 

 descent on either side, described by the people 

 qf Central Asia as ' the roof of the world,' It is 



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