Generally speaking, the Nan-shan highlands are a region raised 12,000 to 14,000 ft. above the sea, and intersected by wild, stony and partly snow-clad mountains, towering another 4000 to 7000 ft. above its surface, and arranged in narrow parallel chains all running N.W. to S.E. The chains of mountains are severally from 8 to 17 m. wide, seldom as much as 35, while the broad, flat valleys between them attain widths of 20 to 27 m. As a rule the passes are at an altitude of 12,000 to 14,000 ft., and the peaks reach 18,000 to 20,000 ft. in the western portion of the highlands, while in the eastern portion they may be about 2000 ft. lower. The glaciers also attain a greater development in the western portion of the Nan-shan, but the valleys are dry, and the slopes of both the mountains and the valleys, furrowed by deep ravines, are devoid of vegetation. Good pasture grounds are only found near the streams. The soil is dry gravel and clay, upon which bushes of Ephedra, Nitraria and Salsolaceae grow sparsely. In the north-eastern Nan-shan, on the contrary, a stream runs through each gorge, and both the mountain slopes and the bottoms of the valleys are covered with vegetation. Forests of conifers (Picea obovata) and deciduous trees—Przhevalsky’s poplar, birch, mountain ash, &c., and a variety of bushes—are common everywhere. Higher up, in the picturesque gorges, grow rhododendrons, willows, Potentilla fruticosa, Spriaeae, Lonicereae, &c., and the rains must evidently be more copious and better distributed. In the central Nan-shan it is only the north-eastern slopes that bear forests. In the south, where the Nan-shan enters Kan-suh province, extensive accumulations of loess make their appearance, and it is only the northern slopes of the hills that are clothed with trees.
(P. A. K.)
Authorities.—An enumeration of the works published before 1890, and a map of itineraries, will be found in Wegener’s Versuch einer Orographie des Kuen-lun (Marburg, 1891), but his map is only approximately correct. Of the books published since 1890 the most important are Sven Hedin’s Scientific Results of a Journey in Central Asia, 1899-1902 (Stockholm, 1905-1907, 6 vols.), with an elaborate atlas and a general map of Tibet on the scale of 1 : 1,000,000; H. H. P. Deasy’s In Tibet and Chinese Turkestan (London, 1901), with a good map; F. Grenard’s vol. (iii.) of J. L. Dutreuil de Rhins’s Mission scientifique dans la haute Asie, 1890-1895 (n.p., 1897), also with a very useful map; W. W. Rockhill’s Diary of a Journey through Mongolia and Tibet in 1891 and 1892 (Washington, 1894); M. S. Wellby’s Through Unknown Tibet (London, 1898); P. G. Bonvalot’s De Paris au Tonkin à travers le Tibet inconnu (Paris, 1892); St G. R. Littledale’s “A Journey across Tibet,” in Geog. Journal (May 1896); H. Bower’s Diary of a Journey across Tibet (London, 1894); the Izvestia of the Russian Geog. Soc. and Geog. Journal, both passim.
[1] In “Orographie des Kwen-lun,” in Zeitschrift der Gesellschaft für Erdkunde zu Berlin (1891).
[2] It is used, for instance, on the map of “Inner-Asien” (No. 62) of Stieler’s Hand-atlas (ed. 1905) and in the Atlas of the Russian General Staff. Etymologically the correct form is Astin-tagh or Astun-tagh, meaning the Lower or Nearer Mountains. Ustun-tagh, which appears on Stieler’s map as an alternative name for Altyn-tagh, means Higher or Farther Mountains, and though not used locally of any specific range, would be appropriately employed to designate the higher and more southerly of the twin border-ranges of the Tibetan plateau.
[3] The Northern Mountains are the Pe-shan in the desert of Gobi (see [Gobi]).
[4] On the opposite or north side of the desert of Lop (desert of Gobi).
[5] Sven Hedin, Scientific Results, iii. 308.
[6] Ibid. 310-311.