South-west of Peking the Great Khingan is continued by the In-shan mountains, which exhibit similar features to those of the Great Khingan, and represent the same terraced escarpment of the Mongolian plateau. Moreover, it appears from the map of the Russian General Staff (surveys of Skassi, V. A. Obruchev, G. N. Potanin, &c.) that similar terrace-shaped escarpments—but considerably wider apart than in Manchuria—occur in the Shan-si province of China, along the southern border of the South Mongolian plateau. These escarpments are pierced by the Yellow River or Hwang-ho south of the Great Wall, between 38° and 39° N., and in all probability a border range homologous to the Great Khingan separates the upper tributaries of the Hwang-ho (namely the Tan-ho) from those of the Yang-tsze-kiang. But according to Obruchev the escarpments of the Wei-tsi-shan and Lu-huang-lin, by which southern Ordos drops towards the Wei-ho (tributary of the Hwang-ho), can hardly be taken as corresponding to the Kalgan escarpment. They fall with gentle slopes only towards the high plains on the south of them, while a steep descent towards the low plain seems to exist further south only, between 32° and 34°. Thus the southern continuations of the Great Khingan, south of 38° N., possibly consist of two separate escarpments. At its northern end the place where the Great Khingan is pierced by the Amur has not been ascertained by direct observation. Prince P. Kropotkin considers that the upper Amur emerges from the high plateau and its border-ridge, the Khingan, below Albazin and above Kumara.[1] If this view prevail—Petermann has adopted it for his map of Asia, and it has been upheld in all the Gotha publications—it would appear that the Great Khingan joins the Stanovoi ridge or Jukjur, in that portion of it which faces the west coast of the Sea of Okhotsk. At any rate the Khingan, separating the Mongolian plateau from the much lower plains of the Sungari and the Nonni, is one of the most important orographical dividing-lines in Asia.
See Semenov’s Geographical Dictionary (in Russian); D. V. Putiata, Expedition to the Khingan in 1891 (St Petersburg, 1893); Potanin, “Journey to the Khingan,” in Izvestia Russ. Geog. Soc. (1901).
(2) The name Little Khingan is applied indiscriminately to two distinct mountain ranges. The proper application of the term would be to reserve it for the typical range which the Amur pierces 40 m. below Ekaterino-Nikolsk (on the Amur), and which is also known as the Bureya mountains, and as Dusse-alin. This range, which may be traced from the Amur to the Sea of Okhotsk, seems to be cleft twice by the Sungari and to be continued under different local names in the same south-westerly direction to the peninsula of Liao-tung in Manchuria. The other range to which the name of Little Khingan is applied is that of the Ilkhuri-alin mountains (51° N., 122°-126° E.), which run in a north-westerly direction between the upper Nonni and the Amur, west of Blagovyeshchensk.
(P. A. K.; J. T. Be.)
[1] See his sketch of the orography of East Siberia (French trans., with addenda, published by the Institut Géographique of Brussels in 1902).
KHIVA, formerly an important kingdom of Asia, but now a much reduced khanate, dependent upon Russia, and confined to the delta of the Amu-darya (Oxus). Its frontier runs down the left bank of the Amu, from 40° 15′ N., and down its left branch to Lake Aral; then, for about 40 m. along the south coast of Lake Aral, and finally southwards, following the escarpment of the Ust-Urt plateau. From the Transcaspian territory of Russia Khiva is separated by a line running almost W.N.W.-E.S.E. under 40° 30′ N., from the Uzboi depression to the Amu-darya. The length of the khanate from north to south is 200 m., and its greatest width 300 m. The area of the Khiva oasis is 5210 sq. m. while the area of the steppes is estimated at 17,000 sq. m. The population of the former is estimated at 400,000, and that of the latter also at 400,000 (nomadic). The water of the Amu is brought by a number of irrigation canals to the oasis, the general declivity of the surface westwards facilitating the irrigation. Several old beds of the Amu intersect the territory. The water of the Amu and the very thin layer of ooze which it deposits render the oasis very fertile. Millet, rice, wheat, barley, oats, peas, flax, hemp, madder, and all sorts of vegetables and fruit (especially melons) are grown, as also the vine and cotton. The white-washed houses scattered amidst the elms and poplars, and surrounded by flourishing fields, produce the most agreeable contrast with the arid steppes. Livestock, especially sheep, camels, horses and cattle, is extensively bred by the nomads.
The population is composed of four divisions: Uzbegs (150,000 to 200,000), the dominating race among the settled inhabitants of the oasis, from whom the officials are recruited; Sarts and Tajiks, agriculturists and tradespeople of mixed race; Turkomans (c. 170,000), who live in the steppes, south and west of the oasis, and formerly plundered the settled inhabitants by their raids; and the Kara-kalpaks, or Black Bonnets, a Turki tribe some 50,000 in number. They live south of Lake Aral, and in the towns of Kungrad, Khodsheili and Kipchak form the prevailing element. They cultivate the soil, breed cattle, and their women make carpets. There are also about 10,000 Kirghiz, and when the Russians took Khiva in 1873 there were 29,300 Persian slaves, stolen by Turkoman raiders, and over 6500 liberated slaves, mostly Kizil-bashes. The former were set free and the slave trade abolished. Of domestic industries, the embroidering of cloth, silks and leather is worthy of notice. The trade of Khiva is considerable: cotton, wool, rough woollen cloth and silk cocoons are exported to Russia, and various animal products to Bokhara. Cottons, velveteen, hardware and pepper are imported from Russia, and silks, cotton, china and tea from Bokhara. Khivan merchants habitually attend the Orenburg and Nizhniy-Novgorod fairs.