AU8TOKKFIKLD. 



ALTAI MOUNTAINS 



f.. 



of the Bow* Ty* river. in 64* M' N. let. S W W. long, 

 KAK. from Carlisle. ttt mil- N.N.W. from London by 

 1 -q- by the Una* Northern. UK! York. Newcastle and Berwick 

 nthreje. the popolrttairftb. town in 1851 was 2005. The living 

 is . riasra*. ^Irchdeeconry of Northumberland end diooeee of 

 DerhanL For floor-Lew purposes Abton with (Jarrigill and Nenl 

 ere. by a loeal act. ooderthmsnr^t of a board of guardians 

 wee teetoded i. U.060 acres, and the popuUtion in 1851 wmi 881$. 



Ufalm U almwt at tlM eastern extremity of Cumberland, in a 

 minte.lan.il and lUtik district, which contain* rich lead mine*; 

 MOT at the*. mines at present belong to Oreenwich Hospital, baring 

 bMD forfeited by the Earl of Derwentwetar, who was engaged in the 

 rebellion of 1715, Th town U irregularly built; the houses are 

 cfeivny of Moo* and roofed with aUto; a handsome new bridge crosses 

 th* Sooth True river. In the centre of the town is a market-cross, 

 erected by Sir William OtopheiBMii. Bart, Lord Mayor of London in 

 1TI. Th* chnrch in the town was rebuilt in 1771, and there is a 

 chapel of SMS at Oarrigill, 4 miles S.E. of the town. In 1844 the 

 whole district of Nenthead was formed into a separate parish, and a 

 ehorch wa* erected close to the town of Nenthead, to which an 

 ejiVmmenl. ffimstftinr of a house and two acres of land, was given 

 by th* Lead Mining Company. (Communication from AUon.) There 

 are also chapels far Quakers, and Wealeyan and Primitive Methodists. 

 Th* grammar-school was erected in 1828, but the endowment appears 

 to ba much older. There is a similar school at Oarrigill ; and at 

 Aleton are National, British and Infant schools, and a savings bank. 

 Considerable sums were left by Lady Charlotte Erskine for educating 

 and ratrphiting th* children of the town, and supporting schools 

 about the collieries. The market day U Saturday, and there are fain 

 for oattl* and horses held on Alston Moor in March, May, September, 

 October, and November. A county court U held in the town. 



The mines of th* neighbourhood supply some copper, and a little 

 silver is extracted from th* lead-ore ; zinc is also produced. But 

 lead is the principal metal obtained, and it is said that the present 

 apply is about 9000 tons per year. Iron-ore has been recently 

 found. A branch of the Newcastle and Carlisle railway has been 

 recently opened, connecting Alston with Haltwhistie. This line, by 

 aflbrding facilities for bringing coals to the works in the vicinity, and 

 far conveying th* produce of the mines, will probably be of much 

 benefit to Alston. 



(Nicholson and Barns', and Hutchinson's Hittorirt of Cumberland; 

 Lyson's Itagn* Britannia ; Communication from Altton.) 



K.KIKLD, Staffordshire, a village and the seat of a Gilbert 

 Poor-Law Incorporation in the parish of Alstonefield, and north 

 hundred of Totmonslow, is situated near the border of the county next 

 Derbyshire, about SO miles X.X.K. from Stafford, and 146 miles 

 '. from London. The population of the entire parish in 1851 

 was 4523; that of th* township of Alstonefield was 681. The 

 living u a vicarage in the archdeaconry of Stafford and diocese of 

 'rH-ft^V* Some of the inhabitants are employed in manufactures, 

 bat th* yieter number are occupied in agriculture. Alstonefield 

 Gilbert Incorporation includes four townships with an area of 11,916 

 acres, and a population in 1851 of 1880. 



ALTAI Mm MM \.s is the name given to that extensive range 

 which forms the northern border of the high-lands of Upper Asia (a 

 region composed of high table-lands, mountains, and valleys), and 

 which divides them from til* low-lands that extend northward to the 

 Arctic Ocean, 



This mmmuin-range begin* on th* eastern banks of the river Irtish 

 (80* E. long.) and here it occupies all the space between the Lake of 

 Zaizang (47* SO' N. laO, and Semipslatinsk (53 N. 1st), oonseqm ntly, 

 boot S4 degrees of latitude. From SO* E. long., it extends eastward 

 till it reaches the Sea of Okhotzk, a gulf of the Pacific Ocean. It 

 grow* broader as it advances Inwards the east ; its northern 

 declivities extend on th* banks of the river Yenesei to Krasnoyarsk 

 <5' N. 1st), and from that town to a point about 200 miles n..,'.l. ..f 

 th* most northern extremity of the Lak* of Baikal, where, between 

 67* and 5V X. Uc they join the Aldan Mountains. How far this 

 image extends to th* sooth is not exactly known, as it traverses 

 coon tries subject to th* Chinese empire, which have not yet been 

 visited by Kuropeana. Bat as far an we may judge from the 

 Geography 1 of the imperial court of Peking, the ranges of the Altai 

 Meeartalme extend even farther to the south than to the north ; and it 

 is probable that between 88' and 105* K. long, th* mountains occupy 

 no less than 12' of latitude (from 45* to 57*), a distance equal to that 

 between th* Pyrenesn Mountains and th* Cheviot Hill*. .., the I...1.- 

 extent of France and England from south to north. About 105* 

 an of the 



!*, or th* meridian 



Lake of Baikal, the great Desert of 



r ASSBO, advancing to the north, narrows the mountain-range 

 lerably. and ehangee its direction from east to north-east. 

 o th. plain to th. north of IrkuUk and the valley, about 

 Ursjkfeoeeapia* not nor* than about 600 miles in breadth. In 

 Ik* parallel of the northern part of the Lake of Baikal (between 64' and 

 M *!. let. I. it run. again totb* east till it arrives at the Pacific Ocean. 

 a the smtiMrn extremity of th* 8ea of Okhotsk, opposite the Island 

 .4 Tsraket U this Utter part of it. extent, the breadth of the range 

 eejssMb* detaresined: fur her. H join. th. Aldan Mountains, which 

 ay be eOMsoered M a branch of tb* Altai, nearly filling up th* whole 



space between the Lena and the Sea of Okhotzk, an extent ..( m..re 

 than 1000 miles from west to east, and running to the north-t-.i 

 they terminate at Bearing's Strait, in Capo Tshukotskoi-Noss, the 

 north-eastern extremity of Asia. 



If we consider the Altai Mountains to terminate at the southern 

 extremity of the Sea of Okhotsk, their whole length from the banks 

 of the Irtish to that point is equal to 62" of long., or about 24 SO miles 

 (at 40 miles to the degree); and if we add the Aldan Mountains, 

 which extend obliquely between 55 and 67 N. lat, 135" E. and 170* 

 W. long., we may still add about 2000 miles, so that the whole length 

 of the Altai Mountains may be deemed to amount nearly to 4500 

 miles. 



Our knowledge of this immense range of mountains is very imperfect, 

 and as the principal parts are subject to the Chinese empire, even their 

 geographical position would be entirely unknown, had not the emperor 

 Kang-hi, in the beginning of the lost century, employed the Jesuito 

 to survey part of these countries. Their surveys were sent to Europe, 

 and used by 1 )' Anville in his ' X nurd Atlas de la Chine, de la Tartarie 

 Chin..!*?, et du Tibet: a la Haye,' 1737, foL About 10 or 12 years 

 ago, the archimandrite Hyacinth brought from Peking the ' Tay-thriing- 

 y-thnungshi,' or the ' Great Imperial Geography of the Dynasty 

 Mandshu Race,' published at Peking, in 1 790. This work was translated 

 and explained by Klaproth, and by means of it, and tin- info, i 

 furnished by Pallas, Meyer, de Ledebour, and Humlioldt, in Siberia, 

 we ore able to form a general though doubtless still imperfect and 

 inexact view of these mountains. 



It was onoe thought that the Altai were connected with the Ural 

 Mountains, SB well as with the Thian-Shon, a range which traverses 

 the interior of Asia about 42 N. lat But according to the ' Geography ' 

 the latter supposition is not probable, and it in very well kn<>\ 

 an immense tract of low country separates the western < 

 the Altai from the southern ranges of the Ural. 



It is true that on the left bank of the Irtish and oppori- 

 western extremity of the Altai Mountains, between 49 and 50 N. 

 lat, a range arises, which extends from east to west for upwards of 700 

 miles to 64 E. long. Though composed of several chains running 

 parallel to one another these mountains do not occupy a great space 

 from north to south : their height is reckoned by Humboldt to be 

 from 1 200 to 1600 feet ; but Dr. Meyer thinks that one summit, the Kar- 

 Karoli, rises to 3000 feet above the level of the sea, or 2000 feet above 

 the steppe of the Kirghix, which lies on its northern side. This, 

 range however ceases en t K. long., so that between it and 



the nearest range of the Ural, which is called Mughodjar Kara Kilir Tau, 

 nearly 10 degrees of a flat country intervene, covered with a great 

 mimlxT of lakes. This smaller continuation of the Altai Mountains is 

 called TMnghu-Tmi. 



There U still another branch, more important in every respect, the 

 Tarbagatai. Its north-eastern extremity is about 20 miles distant 

 from tile Lake Kiiig ; whence it extends towards the south-west to 

 the neighbourhood of the Lake Balkhash, a lino of nearly 500 miles. It 

 rises to a much greater height than the Tshiugbis-Tau. In some 

 places on its north-western summits mow, it is said, lies all the year 

 round, which indicates in thin parallel an lr-..'ii..n of about 6000 feet 

 above the level of the sea. A chain of low hills, running at a distance 

 of about 20 miles along the southern banks of the Lake 7-.jir.ang, 

 unites this range to the Altai Mountains. The Tarbagatai is considered 

 a.< forming the north-western boundary of the empires of China and 

 Russia. The frontier town also called Tarbagatai, which is t~ 

 and has about 5000 inhabitants, stands 100 miles south from the 

 western extremity of the Lake Zaizang, and the same distance east 

 from the north-eastern extremity of the Lake Balkhash. 



The Altai Mountains occupy, as we above observed, uninterruptedly 

 the whole space between the right bank of the Irtish, a tributary 

 of the Ob or Oby, to the southern extremity of the Sea of Okhotzk. 

 The most western part of this great range, between the Irtish and 

 the Tshulyshman, the most eastern tributary of the Oby, all 

 the space between the meridians of 80 and 86 E. cunidsta of one 

 extensive mass of high rocks, furrowed by narrow valleys and rapid 

 rivers ; this part is called by Hitter the Egtag Altai. 



To the east of the Tshulyshman, between the meridians of 86 and 

 87 E., the great mountain-mass ilmd. into three distinct ranges, 

 of which the central, called the Tangnu Oola, extends nearly due 

 east, along the parallel of 49 N., bending a little to the south, and 

 terminates in the mountains which inclose the Lake of Baikal and its 

 southern tributaries on the west. The northernmost chain, called tlie 

 Sayana-Kean, or Mountains of Sayansk, runs west-north-west of the 

 Yenesei, but on t he i mM bank of that river resumes its eastern direction, 

 which towards the mountains on the south-west of lake Baikal inclines 

 t" the south, and in th: it joins the Balkalean Mountains. 



This chain forms the boundary between Russia and the Chinese 

 empire. The most southern chain, called Ulan-gom-Oola, deviates to 

 the south, but soon resumes its eastern course, and running nearly 

 parallel to the Tangnu, reaches the Baikalean Mountains farther to 

 the south in the |rallel of the sources of the Orkhon. All these 

 three chains join, between the meridians of 98 and Hi'. 1 , t|,e mountains 

 that encompass the great Lake Baikal, and are called the Kukalesn 

 Mountains. The Chinese ' Geography ' calls those to the west of the 

 river Orkhon, Kangai, and those on the east, Kentei Mountains. These 



