64 VIEWS OF NATURE. 



The mountain system of the Altai comprehends (a) the Altai 

 proper, or Kolywanski Altai, which is entirely under the 

 Russian sceptre : it lies to the west of the intersecting fissures 

 of the Telezki Lake, which follow the direction of the meri- 

 dian; and in ante-historic times probably constituted the 

 eastern shore of the great arm of the sea, by which, in the 

 direction of the still existing lakes, Aksakal-Barbi and Sary- 

 Kupa,* the Aralo-Caspian basin was connected with the 

 Icy sea ; (b) East of the Telezki chains, which follow the 

 direction of the meridian, the Sayani, Tangnu, and Ulangom, 

 or Malakha ranges, all tolerably parallel with each other, 

 and following an east and west direction. The Tangnu, 

 which merges in the basin of the Selenga, has, from very 

 remote times, constituted the national boundary between the 

 Turkish race, to the south, and the K'irghis (Hakas, identical 

 with Saxai), to the north. f It is the original seat of the 

 Samoieds or Soyotes. who wandered as far as the Icy Sea, 

 and were long regarded in Europe as a race inhabiting ex- 

 clusively the coasts of the Polar Sea. The highest snow- 

 covered summits of the Kolywan Altai are the Bielucha and 

 the Katunia Pillars. The latter attain only a height of about 

 11,000 feet, or about the height of Etna. The Daurian high- 

 land, to which the mountain node of Kemtei belongs, and on 

 whose eastern margin lies the Jablonoi Chrebet, divides the 

 depressions of the Baikal and the Amur. 



2. The mountain system of the Thian-schan, or the chair 

 of the Celestial Mountains, the Tengri-tagh of the Turks 

 (Tukiu), and of the kindred race of the Hiongnu, is eight 

 times as long, in an east and west direction, as -the Pyrenees. 

 Beyond, that is to say, to the west of its intersection with the 

 meridian chain of the Bolor and Kosuyrt, the Thian-schan 

 bears the names of Asferah and Aktagh, is rich in metals, and 

 is intersected with open fissures, which emit hot vapours lumi- 

 nous at night, and which are used for obtaining sal-ammoniac. J 

 East of the transverse Bolor and Kosyurt chain, there follow 

 successively in the Thian-schan, the Kashgar Pass (Kaschgar- 

 dawan), the Glacier Pass of Djeparle, which leads to Kutch 

 and Aksu in the Tarim basin ; the volcano of Pe-sclian, which 



* Asie centrale, t. ii. p. 138. 



t Jacob Grimm, Gesch. der deutschen Sprarte, 1848, Tli. i. s. 227- 



$ Asie centrale, t. ii. pp. 1820. 



