KWAN-LUX CHAIN, 383 



Botom. Move to the west, on the fertile hanks of the chapteh 

 Kohik, commences the vast depression of ground com- •'^^•"^^^ 

 prising Great Buciiaria and the country of Mavar-ul- 

 Nahar ; but beyond the Caspian Sea, nearly in the same 

 latitude and in the same direction as the Tliian Chan 

 range, is seen the Caucasus with its porphyries and Tlie 

 trachytes. It may therefore be considered as a continu- ^""*^''^^* 

 ation of the fissure upon which the Thian Chan is raised 

 in the east, just as, to the west of the great mass of 

 mountains of Azerbijan and Armenia, Mount Taurus is 

 a continuation of the action of the fissure of the Hima- 

 laya and Hindoo-Coosh mountains. 



The Kwan-lun or Koul-koun chain is between Khoten, Kwan-ltm 

 the mountains of Khoukhou-noor and Eastern Thibet, '^^'^^ 

 and the country named Katshi. It commences to the 

 west at the Tsung-ling mountains. It is connected with 

 the transverse chain of Bolor, as observed above, and, ac- 

 cording to the Chinese books, forms its southern part. It 

 crosses the Gobi between the meridians of Lake Gachoun, 

 in longitude 86i, and the eastern extremity of Bassa- 

 doungramoola, in longitude 92°. Humbolt remarks, 

 that at a part of Gobi which forms the eastern border ot 

 the desert of Makhai there is in the prolongation of this 

 mountain chain a manifest perturbation, caused either by 

 the upheaval of the plateau, or, as is perhaps more pro- 

 bable, by the great mass of the snowy mountains of 

 Khoukhou-noor. This corner of the globe, between Mineral 

 Little Thibet and the Badakshan, is very little known, ''"^■**' 

 although it is rich in rubies, lapis lazuli, and mineral 

 turquois, and in various localities works ai"e established 

 for the recovery of the mineral wealth with which the 

 district abounds. Lieutenant John Wood, an enterpris- 

 ing English traveller, succeeded in surmounting the 

 numerous obstacles which had impeded previous research, 

 and in the spring of 1838, reached the source of the Source of the 

 river Oxus. The natural phenomena with which he was ^"^^ 

 there surrounded are very remarkable. At the immense 

 elevation attained by him, he remarks : " We stood, to 



