TKUE VOLCANOES. 359 



side of the intersected meridian-chain of the Kusyurt-Bolor, 

 stretching westward as far as the meridian of Samarcand, 

 and in which Ibn Haukal and Ibn-al-Vardi describe streams 

 of fire, and notice luminous (?) fissures emitting sal am- 

 moniac (see the account of Mount Botom, ut supra). In 

 the history of the dynasty of Thang it is expressly stated 

 that on one of the slopes of the Pe-shan, which continually 

 emits fire and smoke, the rocks burn, melt and flow to the 

 distance of several li, like a " stream of melted fat. The 

 soft mass hardens as it cools." It is impossible to describe 

 more characteristically the appearance of a stream of lava. 

 Moreover, in the forty-ninth book of the great geography of 

 the Chinese empire, which was printed at Pekin from 1789 

 to 1804 at the expense of the state, the burning mountains 

 of the Thian-schan are described as " still active." Their 

 position is very central, being nearly equi-distant (1520 geo- 

 graphical miles) from the nearest shore of the Frozen Ocean 

 and from the mouth of the Indus and Ganges, 1020 miles 

 from the Sea of Aral, 172 and 208 miles from the salt-lakes 

 of Issikal and Balkasch. Information respecting the flames 

 issuing from the mountain of Turfan (Hotscheu) has also 

 been furnished by the pilgrims of Mecca, who were ofiicially 

 examined at Bombay in the year 1835 (Journal of the Asiatic 

 Soc. of Bengal, vol. iv, 1835", pp. 657664). When may we 

 hope to see the volcanoes of Peschan and Turfan, Barkul and 

 Hami explored by some scientific traveller, by way of 

 Gouldja on the Ili, which may be easily reached. 



The better knowledge now possessed of the position of the 

 volcanic mountain chain of the Thian-schan has very naturally 

 given rise to the question whether the fabulous territory of 

 Gog and Magog where " eternal fire " is said to burn at the 

 bottom of the River El Macher, is not in some way con- 

 nected with the eruptions of the Peschan or the volcano of 

 Turfan. This oriental myth, which had its origin westward 

 of the Caspian Sea, in the Pylis Albanian near Derbend, has 

 travelled, like all other myths, far towards the East. Edrisi 

 gives an account of the journeying of one Salam el Terdje- 

 man. the dragoman of one of the Abbasside-Chalifs, in the 

 first half of the ninth century, from Bagdad to the Land of 

 Darkness. He proceeded through the steppe of Baschkir to 

 the snowy-mountain of Cocaia, which is surrounded by the 



