rs ak os 
WW es = 
VOLCANIC ELEVATION OF CHAINS. 42] 
Hou-kouang, Kiang-si, and Foukian, and advances 
its snowy peaks towards the ocean; the island of 
Formosa, the mountains of which are in like man- 
mer covered during the greater part of summer, 
being its termination. Thus we may follow tiu> 
Himmaleh system as a continuous chain from the 
Eastern Ocean, through Hindoo-kho, across Candahar 
and Khorassan, to beyond the Caspian Sea in Adzar- 
baidjan, along an extent of 73 degrees, or half the 
length of the Andes. The western extremity, which 
is voleanic (like the eastern part), loses its character 
of a chain in the mountains of Armenia, which are 
connected with Sangalou, Bingheul, and Kachmir- 
daugh, in the pashalic of Erzeroum. The mean di- 
rection of the system is north 55° west. 
These mountain-chains, with their various rami- 
fications and intervening platforms and valleys, af- 
ford evidence to our author of revolutions anciently 
undergone by the crust of the globe- these having 
been elevated by matter thrust up in the line of enor- 
mous cracks and fissures. The great depression of 
Central Asia, spoken of above, he considers as having 
been caused by the same action. Analogous to the 
Caspian Sea and other cavities in this district, are 
the lakes formed in Europe at the foot of the Alps, 
and which also owe their origin to a sinking of the 
ground. It is chiefly in the extent of this depres- 
sion of Central Asia, and consequently in the space 
where the resistance was least, that we find traces of 
_voleanic action. Several voleanoes are described in 
this space by ancient Chinese writers, who also men- 
tion a variety of volcanic products, such as sal ammo- 
niac and sulphur, which form articles of commerce. 
“We thus know,” says our author, “ in the in- 
