170 NATURAL HISTORY OF 



found safety, when convulsions and changes of surface, 

 which may have swept away a more ancient zoology, 

 had passed over the earth, and were introductory to a 

 new order of things. 



The Gobi or Shanioo region is a true Shinar or Djeen, 

 a series of sandy deserts, intersected, at great distances, 

 by mountain ridges, and not unfrequently by rivers 

 ending in lakes, which all naturally tend to separate 

 small populations, and to keep them isolated, so long as 

 numbers do not compel the inmates to seek for more 

 abundant subsistence. This state of being, urges Man 

 equally to a shepherd's life and to a beginning of agri- 

 cultural industry. Around this space can be traced 

 several high mountain systems, bearing the names of 

 God, of Heaven, and of Snow (purity), for these are 

 often expressed by the same words, such as Himaleh, 

 Thianchan, Bog, &c., and mythical traditions with- 

 out geographical localities, where Pagan nations, at 

 various times, centred the habitations of their gods, 

 or progenitors, in spaces of eternal snow ; such as 

 Mount Meru, Kaf, or the oldest Olympus, find here, 

 in Bogtag, Himavali, and the peak of Himavahn, real 

 geographical positions. It is there we find the Chu- 

 mutaru peak of snow ; and Somero purbut, created by 

 Mahadeo for his retreat and throne, when, like another 

 Jupiter, he fled from Ravan ; the Hindoo diluvian 

 Titan, is clearly the snowy group at the sources of the 

 Ganges. In this high region are the local sites com- 

 memorative of traditions more than once" repeated, at 

 successive more distant stages, in proportion as the 



