is 



THE ETIlXOLOar OF SOUTH EASTERN ASIA. 



ranges of eastern Tibet; the Zangbo draining the great longitudinal 

 valley between the Himalayas and the Znng to its head in Ngari 

 to the north west of Dhawalagui and not fiir to the east of the 

 sacred lakes of Manas Sarowar and Rawan Rhada, the upper 

 extremity of the Indus basin ; the Saluen probably flowing through 

 the mitftlle of this elevated region and bending west round the 

 eastern extremities of the Zang and Shaot Gangri chains ; the 

 Mekong draining the tract between the northern watershed of the 

 Saluen and the great chain of the Kulkun;* andtha Yang-tse-»kiang 

 descending the basin between that range and the Bain Khara 

 Oola by which it is separated from the upper basin of the Hoang-ho. 

 On the other side of the long mountain chain .of the Kuenlun- 

 Kufkttn which forms the north and north western boundary, 

 stretches the vast and desert plateau of Gobi.f Within the bound- 

 ing range are the cold and elevated deserts of KatoJii and Khor, 

 traversed by the chains of Khor and JSaga Dabahu. By Gobi, 

 sweeping for about 1,800 miles and with a mean breadth 

 between 300 and 400 miles from Manchuria in the N. E* 

 nearly to the western curve of the Himalaya and the liolor, 

 the Zangho-Hoangho region is separated from the proper region 

 of the Turks and Mongols,} — the plateaus and valiies belong- 

 ing to the central mountain system of Asia — or that extending 

 from the north of the Bolor through the Kian-shan or Celestial 

 mountains, the Altai and the YaUkmou The Himalaya separate 

 it from the Gangetic basin. The chief links between it and the 

 inhabitable part of the continent are on the S. W,, where it abuts 

 oti Bengal and the N. E, where it abuts on Manchuria. The 

 natural Gamers to communication are however considerable at 

 both points. 



The directions of the primitive migrations in this region must have 



• It must be recollected that the geography of tilts region is still obscure, and 

 that it even remains a (piest ion whether the Zantr-bo falls into the Brahmaputra, 

 the Irawadi or into both. It is possible that the Irawadi, Saluen and Mekong 

 only drain the .s. K. extremity of Hie Tibetan table land. 



t "The remarkable feature of the table-land ia the desert of the Great Gobi, which 

 occupies an area of 300,000 square miles in its eastern extremity, interrupted only 

 by n few spota of pasture and low bushes. Wide tracts are fiat and covered with 

 small atones or eapd. and at a great distance from one another there are low hills, 

 destitute of wood ana water ; ilu general elevation h about -UMH) feet above the sea, 

 but it is interdicted from we»t to east, hv a depressed valley aptly named iShamo, or 

 the " cJeaof Sand, 1 ' which is ulvi mixed witli Milt. Went from it lies the Ihui-IIoi, 

 the " Dry Sea," a barren plain of shifting sand blown into high rldgea. Here, as 

 in all deaerte, the summer sun is scorching, the winter's cold intolerable. All the 

 plains of Mongolia are intensely cold, because the hills to the north an: i«*o low to • 

 BCiedn tljem from the polar bJart, and, being higher than the Siberian deserts, they 

 are bitterly eoldj no month in the year is free from frost and snow, yet It if not 

 det p enough to prevent cattle from finding pasture. Sandy deserts like that of th<* 

 Ureal GoblOCCupy murh of the eonnlrv mjiiIIi of the Chinese branches ol the Altai.' 



Mrs 8pmt0r}fiIU {Physical Gtpographjt^) 



| I do not here indirate am opinion a* to the land of origin of fbrse ncm, but 

 merely ollwie lo the tiiet of I he great bulk uf rlieir tribe* hat mg oeniph-d «hi- 

 reginu at the dawn of history, or having eonn- IVuui it according lo their own Uu- 

 ditiun.i. 



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