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Show 86 STEPPES AND DESERTS. This interruption of the mountain chain, caused by the transverse intersection of the Gobi, continues for more than 9! degrees of longitude j but beyond it the mountains recommence in tlw somewhat more southerly chain of the In -schan, or the Silver Mountains, running (north of the Pe-tschcli) from west to east, almost to the shores of the Pacific near Pekin, and forming a continuation of the Thian-schan. As I have viewed the In-schan as an easterly prolongation (beyond the interruption of the Gobi) of the cleft above which the Thian-schan stands, so one might possibly view the Caucasus as a westerly prolongation of the same, beyond the great basin of the Aral and Caspian Seas, or the depression of Turan. The mean parallel of latitude or axis of elevation of the Thianschan oscillates between 40t0 and 43° N. lat. j that of the Caucasus, according to the map of the Russian Etat-.l\fajor (running rather ESE. and WNW.), is between 41° and 44° north lat. (Baron von Meyendorff, in the Bulletin de Ia Societe Geologique de France, t. ix. 1837-1838, p. 230.) Of the four parallel chains which traverse Asia from east to west, the Thian-schan is the only one in which no summits have yet bad their elevation above the sea determined by measurement. 3. The mountain system of the Kuen-ltin (Kurkun or Kulkon), if we include it in the Hindu-Coosh and its western prolongation in the Persian Elbourz and Demavend, is, next to the American Cordillera of the Andes, the longest line of elevation on the surface of our planet. Where the north-and-south chain of Dolor intersects the Kuen-ltin at right angles, the latter takes the name of the Thsung-ling (Onion Mountains), which is also given to a part of the Bolar at the eastern angle of intersection. The Kuen-liin, forming the northern boundary or Tbibet, runs very regularly in an east and west direction, in the latitude of 36°. In the meridian of H'lassa., an interruption takes place from the great mountain knot which surrounds the alpine lake of Khuku-noor, the Sing-so-hai, or Starry Sea., so celebrated in the mythical geography of the Chinese. The somewhat more northerly chains of Nan-schan and Killian-schau may almost be regarded as an easterly prolongation of the Thian-schan. They extend to the Chinese wall near Liang-tscheu. West of the intersection of the Bolar and Kuen-liin (the Thsung-ling), I think |