M5 ASIA. 



extremity is bounded by the innermost corner of the gulf of Persia, 

 on the west by the mountains of Syria, on the south by the table-land 

 of Nejd, and on the north and north-east by that of Iran. Only its 

 northern half is watered by the river system of the Euphrates and 

 Tigris, while its southern half suffers much from want of moisture, 

 and presents an arid and desert aspect. 



The first two lowlands may be called maritime, and the second two 

 continental. The Chinese and Indo-Chinese lowlands are for the most 

 part surrounded by seas, exposed to the continual action of high tides, 

 and frequently drenched by the moisture brought by the winds from 

 the east and south-east. The lowland of Hindustan, and that of Syria 

 and Arabia, on the contrary, border only on narrow bays, and are on 

 the south and on the north overtopped by high table-lands always 

 enjoying a dry atmosphere. Hence it follows that in the last-mentioned 

 lowlands dryness of the air prevails, as moisture in the former, and 

 that they must be distinguished by all the consequent variations of 

 vegetation and animal life. In China and the peninsula beyond the 

 Ganges the inhabitants approach in their manners and customs the 

 inhabitants of islands ; but in India and Babylonia they are like the 

 inhabitants of inland countries. The southern half of the lowland 

 of Syria and Arabia indeed resembles the African Sahara, and is there- 

 fore called the Arabian Desert. Though situated without the tropic, 

 it displays a tropical nature ; and divested of the peculiarities by which 

 Asia is distinguished, it partakes more than any other country of the 

 features which characterise Africa, its arid climate and its natural 

 productions. 



The fifth is the northern or Siberian lowland, which is by far the 

 most extensive of all, occupying more than half the area of all the 

 lowlands of Asia taken together, and extending along the Polar Sea 

 the whole length of the continent from the Ural Mountains to the 

 Pacific Ocean. Though traversed by extensive river systems, it 

 derives little advantage from this circumstance, as it contains only in 

 the southern third of its surface (between 50 and 60" N. lat.) habitable 

 and cultivable land ; this part has been colonised in all its extent by 

 European settlements, the most numerous in Asia. The northern and 

 most extensive district lying either within the polar circle or near it, 

 ia beyond the boundary of the cultivable world, and belongs rather to 

 the polar region than to that division of the globe which has received 

 the name of the East. The lowland of Siberia, though its maritime 

 boundary exhibits no great variety of forms, has, by its little elevation 

 above the level of the sea, a great influence on the whole continent of 

 Asia, which doubtless would have presented quite a different aspect if 

 high mountains had risen on the northern shores of Siberia, and formed 

 its boundary towards the Pole. 



The sixth lowland ia that of Bucharia or Bokhara, which is entirely 

 continental, not being in contact with any part of the ocean, and only 

 watered by inland seas, the Caspian and the lake of Aral. Its greatest 

 extent is in the direction of the system of the double rivers which 

 traverse it. Beginning at the innermost angle, formed by the western 

 edge of the table-laud of Tibet and the northern edge of that of Iran, 

 this greatest of all the depressions on the surface of the globe extends 

 to the north-west over the countries adjacent to both banks of the 

 Volga, up to the river Don and the boundary of Europe, between the 

 mountain ranges of the Ural and of the Caucasus. Thus it may be 

 considered as an intermediate form which connects central Asia with 

 Europe. Its extensive plains, which are scantily watered, are a kind 

 of mean between sandy deserts and agricultural soil, and their surface 

 is mainly formed of gravel. They are what are commonly called 

 ' steppes' plains covered with grass, and without wood, in which are 

 scattered, like oases, a few tracts of cultivable ground. Such a country 

 in the natural abode of nomadic tribes. Deprived of all natural riches, 

 except in a few places where agriculture is carried on by artificial irri- 

 gation and immense labour, and rather characterised by a total want 

 of natural capabilities, this lowland is very remarkable in an historical 

 point of view. Being placed in the centre of very extensive countries, 

 and surrounded by different nations, it has been involved in great 

 historical events : it was here that the conquerors such as Cyrus 

 and Alexander who proceeded from the west, or those of China who 

 came from the east, the Bactrians, Ghaznavides, and Great Mogols, 

 who advanced from the south, and the Russians from the north, have 

 found a stop to their farther progress. 



The natural poverty of this country, and the comparative richness 

 of those surrounding it, together with the want of fixed abodes and 

 the various political changes of the neighbouring countries, have fre- 

 i|Ui;ntly induced its inhabitants to pass its natural boundaries. Whilst 

 their neighbours the Chinese and Hindoos never left their country, 

 but took root there like plants and became stationary nations, the 

 inhabitants of this lowland have been through all centuries nations of 

 change and migration, who, since the times of the Scythians, Goths, 

 Alans, Uzes, Comanes, Petsheniges, Turks, and Tartars, have inun- 

 dated Europe from time to time, and changed its face by destroying, 

 impairing, or retarding civilisation. Their own country meanwhile 

 was not exempt from great changes, both as respects the nations which 

 inhabited as well as the dynasties which governed it ; and still it exer- 

 cises a great influence on political events by its geographical position 

 and the obstacles which it opposes to the progress of the three great 

 res of Asia the Chinese on the east, the Russian on the north, 

 and the British on the south. 



ASIA. 688 



In thus briuging the whole surface of Asia into one view, we find it 

 composed of six lowlands, different in their nature and independent 

 of one another ; they spread below and around two highlands occu- 

 pying an immense .space, which themselves are surrounded by seven 

 or eight less extensive and entirely separated mountain or table-land 

 regions ; that of southern China, the peninsula without the Ganges, 

 Deccau, Arabia, Syria, Armenia, and the isthmus of the Caucasus, 

 all of which exhibit peculiar features by which the countries surround- 

 ing them are characterised in the same manner as the great highlands 

 characterise the whole continent. If we add to their number ten or 

 twelve intermediate formations constituting the terrace regions, we 

 have nearly a score and a half of great natural divisions on the surface 

 of Asia, of which every one is subject to its peculiar natural laws, 

 presents its peculiar natural appearance, and maintains a distinct 

 character. 



Minerals, Precious Slones. Rock-crystal in the greatest variety ; 

 amethysts in the Altai', Himalaya, and Ural Mountains ; carneliaiis, 

 agates, in western India and in the Gobi desert ; casholongs and 

 onyxes in Mongolia; yu, or oriental jade, in Turkistan; different 

 kinds of jasper in the Altai Mountains ; pearl-stone, marcasit, on the 

 shores of the gulf of Okhot/.k ; beryl in the mountains near the lake 

 of Baikal ; lapis lazuli in the same mountains, as well as in the Hindu- 

 Koosh and on the banks of the Oxus ; topazes in the Ural Mountains ; 

 circouy, chrysoberyl, sapphires, on the island of Ceylon ; rubies in 

 Ceylon and in Badakshan ; turquoises in Khorasan ; diamonds in 

 Deccan, Borneo, and the Ural Mountains. 



Volcanic products are met with on the Sunda Islands, ill Japan, and 

 Kamtchatka, in the neighbourhood of Tauris, and many parts of the 

 highland of Armenia, and in western Anatolia. 



Steatite, earth-flax, asbestus, and kaolin, or the finest porcelain-clay, 

 are found in China and Japan ; talc in Siberia ; coals in northern China 

 and different parts of Hindustan ; rock-salt in the Ural Mountains, 

 northern China, the Panjab, Ajmeer, Yemen, Anatolia; salt hi the 

 salt-seas of the steppes, and sometimes on the surface of the ground ; 

 sal-ammoniac in the volcanic steppes of Central Asia, not far from the 

 river Hi ; nitre in Hindustan ; borax, or tincal, in Tibet ; petroleum 

 near Baku, on the shores of the Caspian Sea, on the Euphrates at Hit, 

 and other places, and at Kerkook, east of the Tigris ; asphaltuni on 

 the Dead Sea, in Palestine. Hot-springs are very abundant in the 

 snow-covered ranges of the Himalaya range, especially along the upper 

 branches of the Ganges and in the north-west of Anatolia. 



Metals. Gold in Japan, Tibet, Yun-nan, Cochin China, Tonkin, 

 Siam, Malacca, Borneo, Asam, Ava, and in the Ural Mountains (many 

 rivers bring down gold in their sands) ; silver in China, Da-uria, Japan, 

 Armenia, Anatolia, and the Ural Mountains ; tin in Malacca, Anam, 

 the Sunda Islands, and the empire of the Birmans ; mercury in China, 

 Japan, and Tibet ; copper in the Ural and Altai mountains, Japan, 

 China, Nepal, Azerbijan, Armenia, and Mount Taurus ; malachite in 

 China and Siberia ; iron from the Ural Mountains, through Central 

 Asia as far as the peninsula beyond the Ganges, as well as in Japan 

 and Persia; lead in Da-uria, China, Siam, Japan, Georgia, and 

 Armenia. 



Extensive layers of fossil shell-fish are found on the highest table- 

 lands of Tibet from 16,000 to 18,000 feet above the sea, and the strata 

 of the tertiary formation in Siberia are full of animal remains of the 

 Old World, as the elephant, mammoth, rhinoceros, &c. 



V. The Man of Asia. As Asia is the most extensive of the great 

 divisions of the globe, it is likewise far superior to the rest if we 

 consider the number of its inhabitants, their variety, and historical 

 fame. Upwards of GOO millions are dispersed over its surface, conse- 

 quently twice as many as the inhabitants of Europe, and more than 

 twelve times that of the inhabitants of America, which continent in 

 its area approaches nearer to Asia than any other. 



Many questions may bo raised respecting the population of Asia. 

 It may be asked whether or not that continent was ever more popu- 

 lous than at present ? How many of its inhabitants were destroyed 

 during the wars of the Mongols ? How far has its population decreased 

 owing to the despotism exercised by the Turks in the western countries ? 

 How many nations have already become entirely extinct, or exist in 

 very small numbers, as the Philistines, the Phceuicians, the Babylo- 

 nians, the Parsees, the Lydians, the Bactrians, the Medes, the Sogdiani? 

 More than 40 nations were destroyed in the middle ages by the Mongol 

 wars according to the statements of the annalists of that time, and 

 some have become.nearly extinct in our times, as the Doms in the 

 Himalaya range, the Miao-tse in southern China, the Tata in northern 

 China, the tribes of the Tunguses, eastern Turks, and Samoiedes in 

 the mountains of Sayansk, and others in Mount Caucasus. These 

 questions cannot be answered with any degree of probability. 



But we may safely assert that the number of foreigners who have 

 settled in Asia is extremely small compared with the numbers who 

 have left it to inhabit other divisions of the globe. We may estimate 

 the number of Europeans in India at 100,000 ; those settled in Siberia, 

 the descendants of the Cossacks included, at 2,000,000, which probably 

 exceeds the truth; and the Greeks of European origin, inhabiting 

 Anatolia, at 1,500,000, or even 2,000,000, though these Greeks have 

 long ago been changed into Asiatics. Few settlers have gone to Asia 

 from Africa and America, and still fewer from Australia. The 

 Egyptians never settled in Asia, but the Arabs settled in Egypt. 



