Retrospective view of the entire Andes-chain from the cliff of Diego Ramirez to Behring’s Straits. Long prevalent errors concerning the height of the eastern Andes-chain of Bolivia, especially of the Sorata and Illimani. Four summits of the western chain, which, according to Pentland’s latest determinations, surpass the Chimborazo in height, but not the still-active volcano, Aconcagua, measured by Fitz-Roy—pp. [42]–44.
The African mountain range of Harudje-el-Abiad. Oases of vegetation, abounding in springs—pp. [44]–46.
Westerly winds on the borders of the desert Sahara. Accumulation of sea-weed; present and former position of the great fucus-bank, from the time of Scylax of Caryanda to that of Columbus and to the present period—pp. [46]–50.
Tibbos and Tuaryks. The camel and its distribution—pp. [50]–53.
Mountain-systems of Central Asia between Northern Siberia and India, between the Altai and the Himalaya, which latter range is aggregated with the Kuen-lün. Erroneous opinion as to the existence of one immense plateau, the so-called “Plateau de la Tartarie”—pp. [53]–56.
Chinese literature a rich source of orographic knowledge. Gradations of the High Lands. Gobi and its direction. Probable mean height of Thibet—pp. [56]–63.
General review of the mountain systems of Asia. Meridian chains: the Ural, which separates lower Europe from lower Asia or the Scythian Europe of Pherecydes of Syros and Herodotus. Bolor, Khingan, and the Chinese chains, which at the great bend of the Thibetan and Assam-Burmese river, Dzangbo-tschu, stretch from north to south. The meridian elevations alternate between the parallels of 66° and 77° east long. from Cape Comorin to the Frozen Ocean, like displaced veins. Thus the Ghauts, the Soliman chain, the Paralasa, the Bolor, and the Ural follow from south to north. The Bolor gave rise, among the ancients, to the idea respecting the Imaus, which Agathodæmon considered to be prolonged northwards as far as the lowland or basin of the lower Irtysch. Parallel chains, running east and west, the Altai, Thian-schan with its active volcanos, which lie 1528 miles from the frozen ocean at the mouth of the Obi, and 1512 from the Indian Ocean at the mouth of the Ganges; Kuen-lün, already recognized by Eratosthenes, Marinus of Tyre, Ptolemy, and Cosmas Indicopleustes, as the greatest axis of elevation in the Old World, between 35½° and 36° lat. in the direction of the diaphragm of Dicæarchus. Himalaya. The Kuen-lün may be traced, when considered as an axis of elevation, from the Chinese wall near Lung-tscheu, through the somewhat more northerly chains of Nan-schan and Kilian-schan, through the mountain node of the “Starry Sea,” the Hindoo Cush (the Paropanisus and Indian Caucasus of the ancients), and, lastly, through the chain of the Demavend and Persian Elburz, as far as the Taurus in Lycia. Not far from the intersection of the Kuen-lün by the Bolor, the corresponding direction of the axes of elevation (inclining from east to west in the Kuen-lün and Hindoo Cush, and on the other hand south-east and north-west in the Himalaya) proves, that the Hindoo Cush is a prolongation of the Kuen-lün, and not of the Himalaya which is associated to the latter in the manner of a gang or vein. The point where the Himalaya changes its direction, that is to say, where it leaves its former east-westerly direction, lies not far from 81° east long. The Djawahir is not, as has hitherto been supposed, the next in altitude to the Dhawalagiri, which is the highest summit of the Himalaya; for, according to Joseph Hooker, this rank is due to a mountain lying in the meridian of Sikhim between Butan and Nepaul, called the Kinchinjinga or Kintschin-Dschunga. This mountain (Kinchinjinga) measured by Col. Waugh, Director of the Trigonometrical Survey of India, has for its western summit an altitude of 28,178 feet, and for its eastern 27,826 feet, according to the Journal of the Asiatic Soc. of Bengal, November, 1848. The mountain, now considered higher than the Dhawalagiri, is represented in the engraving to the title-page of Joseph Hooker’s splendid work, The Rhododendrons of Sikkim Himalaya, 1849. Determination of the snow-limits on the northern and southern slopes of the Himalaya; the former lies in the mean about 3620 up to 4900 feet higher. New statements of Hodgson. But for the remarkable distribution of heat in the upper strata of the air, the table-land of western Thibet would be uninhabitable to millions of human beings—pp. [63]–80.
The Hiongnu, whom Deguignes and John Müller considered to be a tribe of Huns, appear rather to be one of the widely spread Turkish races of the Altai and Tangnu mountains. The Huns, whose name was known even to Dionysius Periegetes, and who are described by Ptolemy as Chuns (hence the later territorial name of Chunigard!) are a Finnish tribe, from the Ural mountains, which separate the two continents—pp. [80]–81.
Representations of the sun, animals, and characters, graven on rocks at Sierra Parime, as well as in North America, have frequently been regarded as writing—p. [82].
Description of the cold mountain regions between 11,000 and 13,000 Parisian, or 11,720 and 13,850 English feet in height, which have been designated Paramos. Character of their vegetation—p. [83].