338 HE ACTION OF THE INTERIOR OF THE EARTH 



335 to 364). The Thian-schan chain is more than 

 eight times the length of the Pyrenees, if passing 

 beyond the north and south chain of the Kusyurt-Bolor, 

 which is traversed by it, we include the Asferah, which 

 extends westward to the meridian of Samarcand, and in 

 which, as in the Thian-schan, Ibn Haukal and Ibn al 

 Vardi describe fountains of fire and luminous ? clefts 

 emitting sal-ammoniac. (See on Mount Botom, Asie 

 centrale, t. ii. p. 16 20.) In the history of the dynasty 

 of Thang it is expressly said, that, on one of the declivi- 

 ties of the Peschan, which perpetually sends forth fire 

 and smoke, the stones burn, melt, and flow for several 

 li " like liquid fat ; the soft mass hardens as it cools." 

 It is scarcely possible to indicate a current of lava 

 more distinctly and characteristically. In the 49th book 

 of the voluminous Geography of the Chinese Empire, 

 which was printed at the expense of the government in 

 Pekin from 1789 to 1804, the fire-mountains of the 

 Thian-schan are described as still active. Their situa- 

 tion is so central that they are about equidistant (1520 

 geographical miles) from the nearest part of the Icy 

 Sea and the mouths of the Indus and the Ganges; 

 1020 miles from the sea of Aral, and 172 and 208 miles 

 from the salt lakes of Issikal and Balkasch. The flames 

 which rise from the mountains of Turfan (Hotscheu) 

 have also been mentioned by pilgrims to Mecca, who 

 were officially questioned in 1835 at Bombay. (Journal 

 of the Asiatic Soc. of Bengal, vol. iv. 1835, p. 657 664.) 

 When will the volcanoes of Peschan and Turfan, Barkul 

 and Kami, be visited by a scientifically qualified tra- 

 veller, who might proceed from Gouldja on the Hi, 

 which can be so easily reached ? 



