ANNOTATIONS AND ADDITIONS. 85 



Pass (Kaschgar-dawan) ; the Glacier Pass of Djeparle, which leads 

 to Kutch and Aksu in the Tarim Basin; the volcano of Pe-schan, 

 which sent forth fire and streams of lava at least as late as the 

 middle of the seventh century; the great, snow-covered, massive 

 elevation, Bogdo-Oola; the Solfatara of Urumsti, which furnishes 

 sulphur and sal-ammoniac (nao-scha), and is situated in a coal dis- 

 trict; the still active volcano of Turfan (or volcano of Ho-tscheu 

 or Bischbalik), almost midway between the meridians of Turfan 

 (Kune-Turpan), and of Pidjan. The volcanic eruptions of the 

 Thian-schan chain, recorded by Chinese historians, reach as far back 

 as the year 39 A. D., when the Hiongnu of the sources of the Irtysh 

 were pursued by the Chinese army as far as Kutch and Kharaschar 

 (Klaproth, Tableau hist, de TAsie, p. 108). The Chinese General, 

 Teu-hian, surmounted the Thian-schan, and saw "the Fire Mount- 

 ains which send out masses of molten rock that flow for many Li." 

 The great distance from the sea of the volcanoes of the interior 

 of Asia, is a remarkable and solitary phenomenon. Abel Eemusat, 

 in a letter to Cordier (Annales des Mines, t. v. 1820, p. 137), first 

 directed the attention of geologists to this fact. The distance, for 

 example, in the case of the volcano of Pe-schan, to the north, or to 

 the Icy Sea at the mouth- of the Obi, is 1528 geographical miles; 

 to the south, or to the mouths of the Indus and the Ganges, 1512 

 geographical miles; to the west, 1360 geographical miles to the 

 Caspian in the Gulf of Karaboghaz; and to the east, 1020 geogra- 

 phical miles to the shores of the Sea of Aral. The active volcanoes 

 of the New World were previously supposed to offer the most re- 

 markable instances of such phenomena at a great distance from the 

 sea; their distance, however, is only 132 geographical miles, in the 

 case of the volcano of Popocatepetl in. Mexico, and- only 92, 104, 

 and 156 geographical miles in those of the South American vol- 

 canoes Sangai, Tolima, and de la Pragua, respectively. I exclude 

 from these statements all extinct volcanoes, and all trachytic mount- 

 ains which have no permanent, connection with the interior of the 

 earth. (Asie Centrale, t. ii. pp. 16-55, 69-77, and 341-356.) East 

 of the volcano of Turfan, and of the fertile Oasis of Hami, rich in 

 fine fruit, the chain of the Thian-schan gives place to the great 

 elevated .tract of Gobi, which follows a SW. and NE. direction. 



