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CHAPTER II.

THE COUNTRIES OF CENTRAL ASIA.1

THE region now under our consideration is bounded on the west by the Caspian Sea and the river Jaik or Ural (the Daix of the ancients), which separates Europe from Asia; on the north, the same river forms the boundary as far as Orsk, thence it stretches in a direct line to the Siberian town of Semipalatinsk;2 on the east it borders on the lofty, chiefly granite, mountains of the stupendous Tarbágátái,3 branches of the Alá-Táu

1 We have taken as the basis of the geographical sketch the corresponding sections of Klöden's Handbuch der Erdkunde, vol. iii. of ed. 1862, completing them to the present standard of geographical knowledge. We have made use, for the purpose of the textual description, of the following excellent maps-Lieutenant Charles Zimmermann's Atlas in Ritter's Asia (a most useful map in spite of the numerous recent explorations); besides this, his geographical analysis of the maps of Middle Asia, Berlin, 1841; Kiepert's Turán or Turkestán, Berlin, 1864; a valuable general map of the Russian, Turanian, and Chinese frontier territories of Central Asia, in three sheets, from Petermann's Geographische Mittheilungen in 1868; and, finally, the map of Central Asia on a scale of 1.4,200,000 which appeared in the Invalide Russe as a supplement in August 1868. This map is not yet much known, but it is highly important on account of its delineating the latest explorations of the Russians in those countries. Very useful is also the Russian map of Russian Asia, published in 1865, and the small but valuable map of Southern Turkestán, published in Russia in 1867.

2 Situated on the river Irtish, in the Government of Tomsk. Vide an article on it by Abramov in the Zapiski of the Imperial Russian Geographical Society, 1861, vol. i.

The Tarbágátái, or the Marmot-mountains (tarbȧgá signifies a

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and Altáil ranges, on the Thián-Shán, or Celestial mountains of the Chinese frontier, and the Belút-Tagh, which on the south unites with the gigantic range of the Hindú-Kúsh; and the southern boundary is formed by the Paropanisus, stretching along the territory of Herát, and thence by the high mountain ranges in the north of the Persian province Kohistán (or the highlands) as far as the Caspian Sea. It extends from 34° to 50° N. lat., and 48° to 78° E. long. of Paris. A glance at the map informs us that this region comprises the south-western portions of Siberia ;3 the formerly independent Turkestán, together with the Khanates of Khiva, Bokhára, and Kokán, which 'marmot'), rise on the north of the Alá-Kúl and on the south of Lake Zaisang, and stretch upwards of thirty German miles from west to east. During all the summer they are covered with snow. M. Semenov calculates the mean height of the ridge at 4,500 P. F. This region, in many respects so interesting, was explored more accurately than has since been the case by M. C. Struve and his collaborateur, Potanin. The Kirghiz have very recently endeavoured to make a permanent abode there, and, if there were not a deficiency of wood, considerable settlements would have taken place.

Altai is a contraction, or, more correctly, an abbreviation, of Al-Taiga, signifying a lofty rocky mountain. Some deduce the derivation of the name from the Turkish word altyn, 'gold,' and accordingly Altai means 'gold mountains.' Altái is an ancient Turkish territory (Humboldt's Kosmos, vol. ii. p. 43). New disclosures, given in a very interesting manner, have been made concerning this region by M. Bernhard von Cotta in his travels during the year 1868 (vide Ausland, 1869, Nos. 10, 11, 13, 16, 18, 50, 51, and his valuable book entitled Der Altaï, sein geologischer Bau und seine Erzlagerstätten, Leipzig, 1871, 8vo). Then the results of the Russo-Chinese Frontier Commission under Babkov, completed in August 1869, which have laid the foundation for a special knowledge of the frontier district, which includes the wildest parts of the Altai from the Lake Zaisang to the borders of the government Yenisei (Petermann's Geogr. Mittheilungen, 1870, p. 77). 2 Alexander von Humboldt, in deviation from the usual mode of spelling this word, namely, Paropamisus,' adopts Paropanisus' (Ansichten der Natur, 1859, vol. i. p. 82).

In a geographical point of view, Siberia cannot be distinguished from the Turanian lowlands.

once comprised the empire known as the Great Bucharia; the territory of Eastern Turkestán,1 not long ago nominally belonging to China as the provinces of Thian-Shan-NanLu and Thian-Shan-Pe-Lu;2 and, finally, the states of Kábul and Herát reckoned as portions of the kingdom of Afghánistán, and also a small part of the north of Persia.

By far the greater part of this country, that is to say the western and northern, belongs to the Turanian lowlands-the most extensive on the face of the earth, if we include the Sarmatian plains of Eastern Europe, which are only separated from the former by the Ural mountains. In this region the ground sinks towards the south, but eastwards there is a gradual ascent towards the south-east. In the south-western portion, however, exists the greatest depression of the earth's surface, of which the lowest hollow is filled up by the Caspian Sea,3 its level being 82.8 P.F. below the level of the Sea of Azov. This flat low basin extends along a dried-up plain as far as Saratov on the

1 The table-land lying between Thián-Shán and the Kuen-Lun is also called High Tartary or Little Bucharia. The last denomination is denoted as meaningless and absurd by Adolphus Erman, who is so thoroughly well versed in Russian geography. And justly so, because Chinese Turkestán is neither small, nor does it stand in any other relation to the Khanate of Bohkára than that caravans from its capital visit these provinces.

2 Nan-Lu means 'south road,' Pe-Lu 'north road.' Consequently, the territories on the south and north of the Thián-Shán mountains--the province Thian-Shan-Pe-Lu (Dzungaria)— -are now more than half Russian.

3 The Caspian Sea was, between the years 1858 and 1862, for the first time accurately surveyed under the direction of Post-Captain N. Ivashint

SOV.

He determined astronomically forty leading points on the coast, and connected them longitudinally by means of chronometrical observations taken on board different steamers (Petermann's Geogr. Mitt., 1863, pp. 53-62). The Caspian Sea (Kök-Küz of the Turkomans; Kuzghun-Denizi, i.e. raven sea,' of the Turks; Darjâ-i-Chyzyr, i.e. Sea of Khárazm, of the Persians) has a superficial area of 407 075 square versts, according

Volga, and thence to Obshchy-Suirt (or Syrt),' containing altogether about 6,000 square miles.

On the east side of the Caspian, on the contrary, there are some considerable heights; for instance, there stretches across the peninsula of Mangishlak a mountain range with flat summits and declivities that descend to the seashore like so many terraces; then the eastward adjoining Ák-Táu, with its low but steep chalk cliffs; and on the south of the gulf Kará-Bugáz (or Black Gulf), the Balkán 2 mountains, which extend upwards of ten miles, having a breadth of 3 to 31⁄2 miles, and a height of more than 5,000 feet. The highest peak is called the Dirhem-Tágh. The long chain of the Kúron, formed of granite and porphyry, joins on the outstretching spurs of the Balkán. On the east of the gulf of Kúli-Dariá lies the chain of the KetteSári-Bábá mountains, and in the island of Cheleken rises the rocky ridge of the Chokrák.

The plateau, or high table-land, having a breadth of 33 miles, and lying between the Caspian and Aral

to the acceptation of the Central Statistical Committee (Petermann's Geogr. Mitt., 1862, p. 391). On its southern coast, near the small town of Sari (36° 50′ N. lat., and 53° 15′ 5′′ E. long. of Greenwich), grow here and there date-trees (vide C. von Baer, Dattelpalmen an den Ufern des kaspischen Meeres einst und jetzt). From the Mélanges Biologiques, vol. iii., it appears that they grow in a latitude in which they were not hitherto supposed to be found (compare Ritter's Erdkunde, ix. p. 251). Consult also that important work on the highly interesting southern coasts by G. Melguno, entitled Das südliche Ufer des kaspischen Meeres oder die Nordprovinzen Persiens, Leipzig, 1868, 8vo, p. 334, with maps.

The Turkish word syrt simply means 'highland,' although originally it signified back-bone.' The Obshchy-Suirt, or Syrt, is a mountain ridge which stretches along the river Ural in an east and westerly direction from the southern extremity of the Ural mountains to the river Volga.

The Úlú Balkan (i.e., in Turkish, the great mountain') is distinguished from the Kütshük Balkan (in Turkish, 'the little mountain ').

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Seas, bears the name of Ust-Urt, which in Turkish, Ust-Uert, denotes a highland.' It rises 600 feet above the level of both those seas, and is begirt on all sides with tolerably steep and lofty declivities. On the east it overhangs the Sea of Aral, and then stretches fifteen miles towards the south; thence, taking a westerly direction, it spreads towards the north-east till it reaches the Gulf of Kaiduk on the edge of the Caspian, where it forms their eastern shores; thence running along the south of the Mertvy-Kultuk (Dead Bay' of the Russians) until it unites on the north-east with the Mugadshar or Mughadjar mountains. In this part the slopes are low, and gradually sink till they entirely disappear in the sandy desert of the Bolshie-Barsúki. Some are of opinion that the Ust-Urt possibly owes its origin to an earthquake, which 500 years ago is supposed by a slight upheaving of the earth's surface also to have diverted the course of the Oxus. But the learned Syevertsov, on the contrary, maintains, in consequence of a scientific examination of the structure and formation of the Mugadshar mountains and the plateau of Ust-Urt, that they are a continuation of the Ural mountains, and thus solves the problem long since mooted by Humboldt.1

On the north of the Aral, where the Barsúki desert expands between that sea and the southern spurs of the Mugadshar mountains, there lies a large tract of land which has a depression lower than the level of the Mediterranean. The whole of this region, particularly on the north-east of the Sea of Aral, presents every variety of marine flora; for there only grow those kinds of plants,

'Is the Ust-Urt a continuation of the Ural mountains?' (Bulletin de l'Académie Impériale des Sciences de St.-Pétersbourg, vol. iv. No. 8, pp. 483-487).