TRUE VOLCANOES. 357 



wards of 19,000 feet, lies nearly 36 geographical miles from 

 the southern shore of the Caspian Sea, in Mazeuderan, and 

 almost at the same distance from Resht and Asterabad, on 

 the chain of the Hindu-kho which slopes suddenly down 

 to the west in the direction of Herat and Mesh id. I have 

 elsewhere (Asie Centrale, t. i, pp 124 129 ; t. iii, pp. 433 

 435) mentioned the probability that the Hindu-kho of 

 Chitral and Kafiristan is a westerly continuation of the 

 mighty Kuen-lim, which bounds Tibet towards the north 

 and intersects the Bolor Mountains in the Tsungling. The 

 Demavend belongs to the Persian or Caspian Elburz, a sys- 

 tem of mountains which must not be confounded with the 

 Caucasian ridge of the same name (now called Elburuz), and 

 which lies 7 further north and 10 further west. The 

 word Elburz is a corruption of Alborj, or Mountain of the 

 World, which is connected with the ancient cosmogony of 

 the Zends. 



While the volcano of Demavend, according to the gene- 

 rality of geognostic views on the direction of the mountain- 

 chains of Central Asia, bounds the great Kuen-lun chain 

 near its western extremity, another igneous appearance at 

 its eastern extremity, the existence of which I was the first 

 to announce (Asie Centrale, t. ii, pp. 427 and 483), deserves 

 particular notice. In the course of the important researches 

 which T recommended to my respected friend and colleague 

 in the Institute, Stanislas Julien, with the view of deriving 

 information from the rich geographical sources of old Chinese 

 literature on the subject of the Bolor, the Kuen-lun, and the 

 Sea of Stars, that intelligent investigator discovered in the 

 great Dictionary published in the beginning of the eighteenth 

 century by the Emperor Yong-ching a description of the 

 " eternal flame " which issues from an opening in the hill 

 called Shin-khien, on the eastern slope of the Kuen-lun. 

 This luminous phenomenon, however deeply seated it may 

 be, cannot well be termed a volcano. It appears to me 

 rather to present an analogy with the Chimaera in Lycia, 

 near Deliktash and Yanartash, which was so early known 

 to the Greeks. This is a stream of fire, an issue of gas con- 

 stantly kindled by volcanic action in the interior of the 

 earth (See page 256, note 50). 



Arabian writers inform us, though lor the most part 



