378 DZUNGARIA 



of country lying at the foot of the mountains, between 

 them and the deserts, — compose the whole of inhabited 

 Dzungaria. In comparison with the deserts, the sur- 

 rounding highlands are paradises of wealth and beauty. 

 Well-named, indeed, is the southern border-range — the 

 Tian Shan — or Heavenly Mountains. This giant range, 

 together with its continuation — the Bogdo-ola and the 

 Karlik Tagh — runs the whole length of Southern Dzun- 

 garia. A continuous line of ice-peaks and untrodden 

 snow- fields lift themselves in exultation above the dusty 

 plain, and send down their melting waters to supply the 

 colonists with all they need to turn their lands to good 

 account. The southern wall of Dzungaria is almost 

 unbroken. In a length of eight hundred miles there 

 are only two passes suitable for wheeled traffic ; one, 

 leading over into Chinese Turkestan, — the Dabachin, 

 situated to the south of Urumchi at the junction of the 

 Tian Shan and Bogdo-ola, and the other, a nameless pass 

 between Tou-shui and Ta-shih-tu which leads over the 

 plateau between the Bogdo-ola and Barkul ranges. One 

 other pass alone — the Talki — permits free intercourse 

 between Dzungaria and the Hi Valley. 



The second range of importance, which affects the 

 welfare of Dzungaria, is the Altai. For a distance of four 

 hundred miles these mountains form a frontier between 

 Dzungaria and Mongolia, and supply not only immense 

 pastures for nomads, but facilities for agriculture, and 

 rivers which form a water-way to Siberia. The Mongo- 

 lian Altai is the north-eastern border-range ; it abuts on 

 the Russian frontier on the one hand, and stretches out 

 into the Gobi Desert on the other. 



On the north and west a string of ranges, orographi- 

 cally disconnected, but geologically the same, form a 



