KRUMEN(Kroomen,Krooboys,Krus, orCroos), a negro people of the West Coast of Africa. They dwell in villages scattered along the coast of Liberia from below Monrovia nearly to Cape Palmas. The name has been wrongly derived from the English word “crew,” with reference to the fact that Krumen were the first West African people to take service in European vessels. It is probably from Kraoh, the primitive name of one of their tribes. Under Krumen are now grouped many kindred tribes, the Grebo, Basa, Nifu, &c., who collectively number some 40,000. The Krus proper live in the narrow strip of coast between the Sino river and Cape Palmas, where are their five chief villages, Kruber, Little Kru, Settra Kru, Nana Kru and King William’s Town. They are traditionally from the interior, but have long been noted as skilful seamen and daring fishermen. They are a stout, muscular, broad-chested race, probably the most robust of African peoples. They have true negro features—skin of a blue-black hue and woolly and abundant hair. The women are of a lighter shade than negro women generally, and in several respects come much nearer to a European standard. Morally as well as physically the Krumen are one of the most remarkable races in Africa. They are honest, brave, proud, so passionately fond of freedom that they will starve or drown themselves to escape capture, and have never trafficked in slaves. Politically the Krus are divided into small commonwealths, each with an hereditary chief whose duty is simply to represent the people in their dealings with strangers. The real government is vested in the elders, who wear as insignia iron rings on their legs. Their president, the head fetish-man, guards the national symbols, and his house is sanctuary for offenders till their guilt is proved. Personal property is held in common by each family. Land also is communal, but the rights of the actual cultivator cease only when he fails to farm it.
At 14 or 15 the Kru “boys” eagerly contract themselves for voyages of twelve or eighteen months. Generally they prefer work near at home, and are to be found on almost every ship trading on the Guinea coast. As soon as they have saved enough to buy a wife they return home and settle down. Krumen ornament their faces with tribal marks—black or blue lines on the forehead and from ear to ear. They tattoo their arms and mutilate the incisor teeth. As a race they are singularly intelligent, and exhibit their enterprise in numerous settlements along the coast. Sierra Leone, Grand Bassa and Monrovia all have their Kru towns. Dr Bleek classifies the Kru language with the Mandingo family, and in this he is followed by Dr R. G. Latham; Dr Kölle, who published a Kru grammar (1854), considers it as distinct.
See A. de Quatrefages and E. T. Hamy,Crania ethnica, ix. 363 (1878-1879); Schlagintweit-Sakunlunski, in theSitzungsberichteof the academy at Munich (1875); Nicholas, inBull. de la Soc. d’Anthrop.(Paris, 1872); J. Büttikofer,Reisebilder aus Liberia(Leiden, 1890); Sir H. H. Johnston,Liberia(London, 1906).
See A. de Quatrefages and E. T. Hamy,Crania ethnica, ix. 363 (1878-1879); Schlagintweit-Sakunlunski, in theSitzungsberichteof the academy at Munich (1875); Nicholas, inBull. de la Soc. d’Anthrop.(Paris, 1872); J. Büttikofer,Reisebilder aus Liberia(Leiden, 1890); Sir H. H. Johnston,Liberia(London, 1906).
KRUMMACHER, FRIEDRICH ADOLF(1767-1845), German theologian, was born on the 13th of July 1767 at Tecklenburg, Westphalia. Having studied theology at Lingen and Halle, he became successively rector of the grammar school at Mörs (1793), professor of theology at Duisburg (1800), preacher at Crefeld, and afterwards at Kettwig,Consistorialrathand superintendent in Bernburg, and, after declining an invitation to the university of Bonn, pastor of the Ansgariuskirche in Bremen (1824). He died at Bremen on the 14th of April 1845. He was the author of many religious works, but is best known by hisParabeln(1805; 9th ed. 1876; Eng. trans. 1844).
A. W. Möller published his life and letters in 1849.
A. W. Möller published his life and letters in 1849.
His brotherGottfried Daniel Krummacher(1774-1837), who studied theology at Duisburg and became pastor successively in Bärl (1798), Wülfrath (1801) and Elberfeld (1816), was the leader of the “pietists” of Wupperthal, and published several volumes of sermons, including one entitledDie Wanderungen Israels durch d. Wüste nach Kanaan(1834).
Friedrich Wilhelm Krummacher(1796-1868), son of Friedrich Adolf, studied theology at Halle and Jena, and became pastor successively at Frankfort (1819), Ruhrort (1823), Gemarke, near Barmen in the Wupperthal (1825), and Elberfeld (1834). In 1847 he received an appointment to the Trinity Church in Berlin, and in 1853 he became court chaplain at Potsdam. He was an influential promoter of the Evangelical Alliance. His best-known works areElias der Thisbiter(1828-1833; 6th ed. 1874; Eng. trans. 1838);Elisa(1837) andDas Passionsbuch, der leidende Christus(1854, inEnglish The Suffering Saviour, 1870). HisAutobiographywas published in 1869 (Eng. trans. 1871).
Emil Wilhelm Krummacher(1798-1886), another son, was born at Mörs in 1798. In 1841 he became pastor in Duisburg. He wrote, amongst other works,Herzensmanna aus LuthersWerken(1852). His son Hermann (1828-1890), who was appointedConsistorialrathin Stettin in 1877, was the author ofDeutsches Leben in Nordamerika(1874).
KRUPP, ALFRED(1812-1887), German metallurgist, was born at Essen on the 26th of April 1812. His father, Friedrich Krupp (1787-1826), had purchased a small forge in that town about 1810, and devoted himself to the problem of manufacturing cast steel; but though that product was put on the market by him in 1815, it commanded but little sale, and the firm was far from prosperous. After his death the works were carried on by his widow, and Alfred, as the eldest son, found himself obliged, a boy of fourteen, to leave school and undertake their direction. For many years his efforts met with little success, and the concern, which in 1845 employed only 122 workmen, did scarcely more than pay its way. But in 1847 Krupp made a 3 pdr. muzzle-loading gun of cast steel, and at the Great Exhibition of London in 1851 he exhibited a solid flawless ingot of cast steel weighing 2 tons. This exhibit caused a sensation in the industrial world, and the Essen works sprang into fame. Another successful invention, the manufacture of weldless steel tires for railway vehicles, was introduced soon afterwards. The profits derived from these and other steel manufactures were devoted to the expansion of the works and to the development of the artillery with which the name of Krupp is especially associated (seeOrdnance). The model settlement, which is one of the best-known features of the Krupp works, was started in the ’sixties, when difficulty began to be found in housing the increasing number of workmen; and now there are various “colonies,” practically separate villages, dotted about to the south and south-west of the town, with schools, libraries, recreation grounds, clubs, stores, &c. The policy also was adopted of acquiring iron and coal mines, so that the firm might have command of supplies of the raw material required for its operations. Alfred Krupp, who was known as the “Cannon King,” died at Essen on the 14th of July 1887, and was succeeded by his only son, Friedrich Alfred Krupp (1854-1902), who was born at Essen on the 17th of February 1854. The latter devoted himself to the financial rather than to the technical side of the business, and under him it again underwent enormous expansion. Among other things he in 1896 leased the “Germania” ship-building yard at Kiel, and in 1902 it passed into the complete ownership of the firm. In the latter year, which was also the year of his death, on the 22nd of November, the total number of men employed at Essen and its associated works was over 40,000. His elder daughter Bertha, who succeeded him, was married in October 1906 to Dr Gustav von Bohlen und Halbach, who on that occasion received the right to bear the name Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach. The enormous increase in the German navy involved further expansion in the operations of the Krupp firm as manufacturers of the armour plates and guns required for the new ships, and in 1908 its capital, then standing at £9,000,000, was augmented by £2,500,000.
KRUSENSTERN, ADAM IVAN(1770-1846), Russian navigator, hydrographer and admiral, was born at Haggud in Esthonia on the 19th of November 1770. In 1785 he entered the corps of naval cadets, after leaving which, in 1788, with the grade of midshipman, he served in the war against Sweden. Having been appointed to serve in the British fleet for several years (1793-1799), he visited America, India and China. After publishing a paper pointing out the advantages of direct communication between Russia and China by Cape Horn and the Cape of Good Hope, he was appointed by the emperor Alexander I. to make a voyage to the east coast of Asia to endeavour to carry out the project. Two English ships were bought, in which the expedition left Kronstadt in August 1803 and proceeded by Cape Horn and the Sandwich Islands to Kamchatka, and thence to Japan. Returning to Europe by the Cape of Good Hope, after an extended series of explorations, Krusenstern reached Kronstadt in August 1806, his being the first Russian expedition to circumnavigate the world. The emperor conferred several honours upon him, and he ultimately became admiral. As director of the Russian naval school Krusenstern did much useful work. He was also a member of the scientific committee of the marine department, and his contrivance for counteracting the influence of the iron in vessels on the compass was adopted in the navy. He died at Reval on the 24th of August 1846.
Krusenstern’sVoyage Round the World in 1803-1806was published at St Petersburg in 1810-1814, in 3 vols., with folio atlas of 104 plates and maps (Eng. ed., 2 vols. 1813; French ed., 2 vols., and atlas of 30 plates, 1820). His narrative contains a good many important discoveries and rectifications, especially in the region of Japan, and the contributions made by the various savants were of much scientific importance. A valuable work is hisAtlas de l’Océan Pacifique, with its accompanyingRecueil des mémoires hydrographiques(St Petersburg, 1824-1827). SeeMemoirby his daughter, Madame Charlotte Bernhardi, translated by Sir John Ross (1856).
Krusenstern’sVoyage Round the World in 1803-1806was published at St Petersburg in 1810-1814, in 3 vols., with folio atlas of 104 plates and maps (Eng. ed., 2 vols. 1813; French ed., 2 vols., and atlas of 30 plates, 1820). His narrative contains a good many important discoveries and rectifications, especially in the region of Japan, and the contributions made by the various savants were of much scientific importance. A valuable work is hisAtlas de l’Océan Pacifique, with its accompanyingRecueil des mémoires hydrographiques(St Petersburg, 1824-1827). SeeMemoirby his daughter, Madame Charlotte Bernhardi, translated by Sir John Ross (1856).
KRUSHEVATS(orKruševac), a town of Servia, lying in a fertile region of hills and dales near the right bank of the Servian Morava. Pop. (1900), about 10,000. Krushevats is the capital of a department bearing the same name, and has an active trade in tobacco, hemp, flax, grain and livestock, for the sale of which it possesses about a dozen markets. It was in Krushevats that the last Servian tsar, Lazar, assembled his army to march against the Turks, and lose his empire, at Kosovo, in 1389. The site of his palace is marked by a ruined enclosure containing a fragment of the tower of Queen Militsa, whither, according to legend, tidings of the defeat were brought her by crows from the battlefield. Within the enclosure stands a church, dating from the reign of Stephen Dushan (1336-1356), with beautiful rose windows and with imperial peacocks, dragons and eagles sculptured on the walls. Several old Turkish houses were left at the beginning of the 20th century, besides an ancient Turkish fountain and bath.
KSHATTRIYA,one of the four original Indian castes, the other three being the Brahman, the Vaisya and the Sudra. The Kshattriya was the warrior caste, and their function was to protect the people and abstain from sensual pleasures. On the rise of Brahmin ascendancy the Kshattriyas were repressed, and their consequent revolt gave rise to Buddhism and Jainism, the founders of both these religions belonging to the Kshattriya caste. Though, according to tradition, the Kshattriyas were all exterminated by Parasurama, the rank is now conceded to the modern Rajputs, and also to the ruling families of native states. (SeeCaste.)
KUBAN,a river of southern Russia, rising on the W. slope of the Elbruz, in the Caucasus, at an altitude of 13,930 ft., races down the N. face of the Caucasus as a mountain-torrent, but upon getting down to the lower-lying steppe country S. of Stavropol it turns, at 1075 ft. altitude, towards the N.W., and eventually, assuming a westerly course, enters the Gulf of Kyzyl-tash, on the Black Sea, in the vicinity of the Straits of Kerch. Its lower course lies for some distance through marshes, where in times of overflow its breadth increases from the normal 700 ft. to over half a mile. Its total length is 500 m., the area of its basin 21,480 sq. m. It is navigable for steamers for 73 m., as far as the confluence of its tributary, the Laba (200 m. long). This, like its other affluents, the Byelaya (155 m.), Urup, and Great and Little Zelenchuk, joins it from the left. The Kuban is the ancient Hypanis and Vardanes and the Pshishche of the Circassians.
KUBAÑ,a province of Russian Caucasia, having the Sea of Azov on the W., the territory of Don Cossacks on the N., the government of Stavropol and the province of Terek on the E., and the government of Kutais and the Black Sea district on the S. and S.W. It thus contains the low and marshy lowlands on the Sea of Azov, the western portion of the fertile steppes of northern Caucasia, and the northern slopes of the Caucasus range from its north-west extremity to the Elbruz. The area is 36,370 sq. m. On the south the province includes the parallel ranges of the Black Mountains (Kara-dagh), 3000 to 6000 ft. high, which are intersected by gorges that grow deeper and wider as the main range is approached. Owing to a relatively wet climate and numerous streams, these mountains are densely clothed with woods, under the shadow of which a thickundergrowth of rhododendrons, “Caucasian palms” (Buxus sempervirens), ivy, clematis, &c., develops, so as to render the forests almost impassable. These cover altogether nearly 20% of the aggregate area. Wide, treeless plains, from 1000 to 2000 ft. high, stretch north of the Kubañ, and are profusely watered by that river and its many tributaries—the Little and Great Zelenchuk, Urup, Laba, Byelaya, Pshish—mountain torrents that rush through narrow gorges from the Caucasus range. In its lower course the Kubañ forms a wide, low delta, covered with rushes, haunted by wild boar, and very unhealthy. The same characteristics mark the low plains on the east of the Sea of Azov, dotted over with numerous semi-stagnant lakes. Malaria is the enemy of these regions, and is especially deadly on the Tamañ Peninsula, as also along the left bank of the lower and middle Kubañ.
There is considerable mineral wealth. Coal is found on the Kubañ and its tributaries, but its extraction is still insignificant (less than 10,000 tons per annum). Petroleum wells exist in the district of Maikop, but the best are in the Tamañ Peninsula, where they range over 570 sq. m. Iron ores, silver and zinc are found; alabaster is extracted, as also some salt, soda and Epsom salts. The best mineral waters are at Psekup and Tamañ, where there are also numbers of mud volcanoes, ranging from small hillocks to hills 365 ft. high and more. The soil is very fertile in the plains, parts of which consist of black earth and are being rapidly populated.
The population reached 1,928,419 in 1897, of whom 1,788,622 were Russians, 13,926 Armenians, 20,137 Greeks and 20,778 Germans. There were at the same date 945,873 women, and only 156,486 people lived in towns. The estimated population in 1906 was 2,275,400. The aborigines were represented by 100,000 Circassians, 5000 Nogai Tatars and some Ossetes. The Circassians or Adyghe, who formerly occupied the mountain valleys, were compelled, after the Russian conquest in 1861, either to settle on the flat land or to emigrate; those who refused to move voluntarily were driven across the mountains to the Black Sea coast. Most of them (nearly 200,000) emigrated to Turkey, where they formed the Bashi-bazouks. Peasants from the interior provinces of Russia occupied the plains of the Kubañ, and they now number over 1,000,000, while the Kubañ Cossacks in 1897 numbered 804,372 (405,428 women). In point of religion 90% of the population were in 1897 members of the Orthodox Greek Church, 4% Raskolniks and other Christians and 5.4% Mahommedans, the rest being Jews.
Wheat is by far the chief crop (nearly three-quarters of the total area under crops are under wheat); rye, oats, barley, millet, Indian corn, some flax and potatoes, as also tobacco, are grown. Agricultural machinery is largely employed, and the province is a reserve granary for Russia. Livestock, especially sheep, is kept in large numbers on the steppes. Bee-keeping is general, and gardening and vine-growing are spreading rapidly. Fishing in the Black Sea and Sea of Azov, as also in the Kubañ, is important.
Two main lines of railway intersect the province, one running N.W. to S.E., from Rostov to Vladikavkaz, and another starting from the former south-westwards to Novorossiysk on the north coast of the Black Sea. The province is divided into seven districts, the chief towns of which, with their populations in 1897, are Ekaterinodar, capital of the province (65,697), Anapa (6676), Labinsk (6388), Batalpashinsk (8100), Maikop (34,191), Temryuk (14,476) and Yeisk (35,446).
The history of the original settlements of the various native tribes, and their language and worship before the introduction of Mahommedanism, remain a blank page in the legends of the Caucasus. The peninsula of Tamañ, a land teeming with relics of ancient Greek colonists, has been occupied successively by the Cimmerians, Sarmatians, Khazars, Mongols and other nations. The Genoese, who established an extensive trade in the 13th century, were expelled by the Turks in 1484, and in 1784 Russia obtained by treaty the entire peninsula and the territory on the right bank of the Kubañ, the latter being granted by Catherine II. in 1792 to the Cossacks of the Dnieper. Then commenced the bloody struggle with the Circassians, which continued for more than half a century. Not only domestic, but even field work, is conducted mostly by the women, who are remarkable for their physical strength and endurance. The native mountaineers, known under the general name of Circassians, but locally distinguished as the Karachai, Abadsikh, Khakuchy, Shapsugh, have greatly altered their mode of life since the pacification of the Caucasus, still, however, maintaining Mahommedanism, speaking their vernacular, and strictly observing the customs of their ancestors. Exports include wheat, tobacco, leather, wool, petroleum, timber, fish, salt and live cattle; imports, dry goods, grocery and hardware. Local industry is limited to a few tanneries, petroleum refineries and spirit distilleries.
(P. A. K.; J. T. Be.)
KUBELIK, JAN(1880- ), Bohemian violinist, was born near Prague, of humble parentage. He learnt the violin from childhood, and appeared in public at Prague in 1888, subsequently being trained at the Conservatorium by the famous teacher Ottakar Sevčik. From him he learnt an extraordinary technique, and from 1898 onwards his genius was acclaimed at concerts throughout Europe. He first appeared in London in 1900, and in America in 1901, creating afuroreeverywhere. In 1903 he married the Countess Czaky Szell.
KUBERA(orKuvera), in Hindu mythology, the god of wealth. Originally he appears as king of the powers of evil, a kind of Pluto. His home is Alaka in Mount Kailasa, and his garden, the world’s treasure-house, is Chaitraratha, on Mount Mandara. Kubera is half-brother to the demon Ravana, and was driven from Ceylon by the latter.
KUBLAI KHAN(orḲaan, as the supreme ruler descended from Jenghiz was usually distinctively termed in the 13th century) (1216-1294), the most eminent of the successors of Jenghiz (Chinghiz), and the founder of the Mongol dynasty in China. He was the second son of Tulē, youngest of the four sons of Jenghiz by his favourite wife. Jenghiz was succeeded in the khanship by his third son Okkodai, or Ogdai (1229), he by his son Kuyuk (1246), and Kuyuk by Mangu, eldest son of Tulē (1252). Kublai was born in 1216, and, young as he was, took part with his younger brother Hulagu (afterwards conqueror of the caliph and founder of the Mongol dynasty in Persia) in the last campaign of Jenghiz (1226-27). The Mongol poetical chronicler, Sanang Setzen, records a tradition that Jenghiz himself on his death-bed discerned young Kublai’s promise and predicted his distinction.
Northern China, Cathay as it was called, had been partially conquered by Jenghiz himself, and the conquest had been followed up till the Kin or “golden” dynasty of Tatars, reigning at K’ai-fēng Fu on the Yellow River, were completely subjugated (1234). But China south of the Yangtsze-kiang remained many years later subject to the native dynasty of Sung, reigning at the great city of Lingan, or Kinsai (King-sz’, “capital”), now known as Hang-chow Fu. Operations to subdue this region had commenced in 1235, but languished till Mangu’s accession. Kublai was then named his brother’s lieutenant in Cathay, and operations were resumed. By what seems a vast and risky strategy, of which the motives are not quite clear, the first campaign of Kublai was directed to the subjugation of the remote western province of Yunnan. After the capture of Tali Fu (well known in recent years as the capital of a Mahommedan insurgent sultan), Kublai returned north, leaving the war in Yunnan to a trusted general. Some years later (1257) the khan Mangu himself entered on a campaign in west China, and died there, before Ho-chow in Sze-ch’uen (1259).
Kublai assumed the succession, but it was disputed by his brother Arikbugha and by his cousin Kaidu, and wars with these retarded the prosecution of the southern conquest. Doubtless, however, this was constantly before Kublai as a great task to be accomplished, and its fulfilment was in his mind when he selected as the future capital of his empire the Chinese city that we now know as Peking. Here, in 1264, to the north-east of the old city, which under the name of Yenking had been an occasional residence of the Kin sovereigns, he founded his newcapital, a great rectangular plot of 18 m. in circuit. The (so-called) “Tatar city” of modern Peking is the city of Kublai, with about one-third at the north cut off, but Kublai’s walls are also on this retrenched portion still traceable.
The new city, officially termed T’ai-tu (“great court”), but known among the Mongols and western people as Kaan-baligh (“city of the khan”) was finished in 1267. The next year war against the Sung Empire was resumed, but was long retarded by the strenuous defence of the twin cities of Siang-yang and Fan-chēng, on opposite sides of the river Han, and commanding two great lines of approach to the basin of the Yangtsze-kiang. The siege occupied nearly five years. After this Bayan, Kublai’s best lieutenant, a man of high military genius and noble character, took command. It was not, however, till 1276 that the Sung capital surrendered, and Bayan rode into the city (then probably the greatest in the world) as its conqueror. The young emperor, with his mother, was sent prisoner to Kaan-baligh; but two younger princes had been despatched to the south before the fall of the city, and these successively were proclaimed emperor by the adherents of the native throne. An attempt to maintain their cause was made in Fu-kien, and afterwards in the province of Kwang-tung; but in 1279 these efforts were finally extinguished, and the faithful minister who had inspired them terminated the struggle by jumping with his young lord into the sea.
Even under the degenerate Sung dynasty the conquest of southern China had occupied the Mongols during half a century of intermittent campaigns. But at last Kublai was ruler of all China, and probably the sovereign (at least nominally) of a greater population than had ever acknowledged one man’s supremacy. For, though his rule was disputed by the princes of his house in Turkestan, it was acknowledged by those on the Volga, whose rule reached to the frontier of Poland, and by the family of his brother Hulagu, whose dominion extended from the Oxus to the Arabian desert. For the first time in history the name and character of an emperor of China were familiar as far west as the Black Sea and not unknown in Europe. The Chinese seals which Kublai conferred on his kinsmen reigning at Tabriz are stamped upon their letters to the kings of France, and survive in the archives of Paris. Adventurers from Turkestan, Persia, Armenia, Byzantium, even from Venice, served him as ministers, generals, governors, envoys, astronomers or physicians; soldiers from all Asia to the Caucasus fought his battles in the south of China. Once in his old age (1287) Kublai was compelled to take the field in person against a serious revolt, raised by Nayan, a prince of his family, who held a vast domain on the borders of Manchuria. Nayan was taken and executed. The revolt had been stirred up by Kaidu, who survived his imperial rival, and died in 1301. Kublai himself died in 1294, at the age of seventy-eight.
Though a great figure in Asiatic history, and far from deserving a niche in the long gallery of Asiatic tyrants, Kublai misses a record in the short list of the good rulers. His historical locus was a happy one, for, whilst he was the first of his race to rise above the innate barbarism of the Mongols, he retained the force and warlike character of his ancestors, which vanished utterly in the effeminacy of those who came after him. He had great intelligence and a keen desire for knowledge, with apparently a good deal of natural benevolence and magnanimity. But his love of splendour, and his fruitless expeditions beyond sea, created enormous demands for money, and he shut his eyes to the character and methods of those whom he employed to raise it. A remarkable narrative of the oppressions of one of these, Ahmed of Fenāket, and of the revolt which they provoked, is given by Marco Polo, in substantial accordance with the Chinese annals.
Kublai patronized Chinese literature and culture generally. The great astronomical instruments which he caused to be made were long preserved at Peking, but were carried off to Berlin in 1900. Though he put hardly any Chinese into the first ranks of his administration, he attached many to his confidence, and was personally popular among them. Had his endeavour to procure European priests for the instruction of his people, of which we know through Marco Polo, prospered, the Roman Catholic church, which gained some ground under his successors, might have taken stronger root in China. Failing this momentary effort, Kublai probably saw in the organized force of Tibetan Buddhism the readiest instrument in the civilization of his countrymen, and that system received his special countenance. An early act of his reign had been to constitute a young lama of intelligence and learning the head of the Lamaite Church, and eventually also prince of Tibet, an act which may be regarded as a precursory form of the rule of the “grand lamas” of Lassa. The same ecclesiastic, Mati Dhwaja, was employed by Kublai to devise a special alphabet for use with the Mongol language. It was chiefly based on Tibetan forms of Nagari; some coins and inscriptions in it are extant; but it had no great vogue, and soon perished. Of the splendour of his court and entertainments, of his palaces, summer and winter, of his great hunting expeditions, of his revenues and extraordinary paper currency, of his elaborate system of posts and much else, an account is given in the book of Marco Polo, who passed many years in Kublai’s service.
We have alluded to his foreign expeditions, which were almost all disastrous. Nearly all arose out of a hankering for the nominal extension of his empire by claiming submission and tribute. Expeditions against Japan were several times repeated; the last, in 1281, on an immense scale, met with huge discomfiture. Kublai’s preparations to avenge it were abandoned owing to the intense discontent which they created. In 1278 he made a claim of submission upon Champa, an ancient state representing what we now call Cochin China. This eventually led to an attempt to invade the country through Tongking, and to a war with the latter state, in which the Mongols had much the worst of it. War with Burma (or Mien, as the Chinese called it) was provoked in very similar fashion, but the result was more favourable to Kublai’s arms. The country was overrun as far as the Irrawaddy delta, the ancient capital, Pagān, with its magnificent temples, destroyed, and the old royal dynasty overthrown. The last attempt of the kind was against Java, and occurred in the last year of the old khan’s reign. The envoy whom he had commissioned to claim homage was sent back with ignominy. A great armament was equipped in the ports of Fu-kien to avenge this insult; but after some temporary success the force was compelled to re-embark with a loss of 3000 men. The death of Kublai prevented further action.
Some other expeditions, in which force was not used, gratified the khan’s vanity by bringing back professions of homage, with presents, and with the curious reports of foreign countries in which Kublai delighted. Such expeditions extended to the states of southern India, to eastern Africa, and even to Madagascar.
Of Kublai’s twelve legitimate sons, Chingkim, the favourite and designated successor, died in 1284/5; and Timur, the son of Chingkim, took his place. No great king arose in the dynasty after Kublai. He had in all nine successors of his house on the throne of Kaan-baligh, but the long and imbecile reign of the ninth, Toghon Timur, ended (1368) in disgrace and expulsion and the native dynasty of Ming reigned in their stead.
(H. Y.)
KUBUS,a tribe inhabiting the central parts of Sumatra. They are nomadic savages living entirely in the forests in shelters of branches and leaves built on platforms. It has been suggested that they represent a Sumatran aboriginal race; but Dr J. G. Garson, reporting on Kubu skulls and skeletons submitted to him by Mr. H. O. Forbes, declared them decidedly Malay, though the frizzle in the hair might indicate a certain mixture of negrito blood (Jour. Anthrop. Instit., April 1884). They are of a rich olive-brown tint, their hair jet black and inclined to curl, and, though not dwarfs, are below the average height.
KUCHĀN,a fertile and populous district of the province Khorasan in Persia, bounded N. by the Russian Transcaspian territory, W. by Bujnurd, S. by Isfaraïn, and extending in the E. to near Radkan. Its area is about 3000 sq. m. and itspopulation, principally composed of Zafaranlu Kurds, descendants of tribes settled there by Shah Abbas I. in the 17th century, is estimated at 100,000. About 3000 families are nomads and live in tents. The district produces much grain, 25,000 to 30,000 tons yearly, and contains two towns, Kuchan and Shirvan (pop. 6000), and many villages.
Kuchan, the capital of the district, has suffered much from the effects of earthquakes, notably in 1875, 1894 and 1895. The last earthquake laid the whole town in ruins and caused considerable loss of life. About 8000 of the survivors removed to a site 7½ m. E. and there built a new town named Nasseriyeh after Nasr-ud-din Shah, but known better as Kuchan i jadid,i.e.New Kuchan, and about 1000 remained in the ruined city in order to be near their vineyards and gardens. The geographical position of the old town is 37° 8´ N., 58° 25´ E., elevation 4100 ft. The new town has been regularly laid out with broad streets and spacious bazaars, and, situated as it is half-way between Meshed and Askabad on the cart-road connecting those two places, has much trade. Its population is estimated at 10,000. There are telegraph and post offices.
KUCH BEHAR,orCooch Behar, a native state of India, in Bengal, consisting of a submontane tract, not far from Darjeeling, entirely surrounded by British territory. Area, 1307 sq. m. Pop. (1901), 566,974; estimated revenue, £140,000. The state forms a level plain of triangular shape, intersected by numerous rivers. The greater portion is fertile and well cultivated, but tracts of jungle are to be seen in the north-east corner, which abuts upon Assam. The soil is uniform in character throughout, consisting of a light, friable loam, varying in depth from 6 in. to 3 ft., superimposed upon a deep bed of sand. The whole is detritus, washed down by torrents from the neighbouring Himalayas. The rivers all pass through the state from north to south, to join the main stream of the Brahmaputra. Some half-dozen are navigable for small trading boats throughout the year, and are nowhere fordable; and there are about twenty minor streams which become navigable only during the rainy season. The streams have a tendency to cut new channels for themselves after every annual flood, and they communicate with one another by cross-country watercourses. Rice is grown on three-fourths of the cultivated area. Jute and tobacco are also largely grown for export. The only special industries are the weaving of a strong silk obtained from worms fed on the castor-oil plant, and of a coarse jute cloth used for screens and bedding. The external trade is chiefly in the hands of Marwari immigrants from Rajputana. Among other improvements a railway has been constructed, with the assistance of a loan from the British government. The earthquake of the 12th of June 1897 caused damage to public buildings, roads, &c., in the state to the estimated amount of £100,000.
The Koch or Rajbansi, from which the name of the state is derived, are a widely spread tribe, evidently of aboriginal descent, found throughout all northern Bengal, from Purnea district to the Assam valley. They are akin to the Indo-Chinese races of the north-east frontier; but they have now become largely hinduized, especially in their own home, where the appellation “Koch” has come to be used as a term of reproach. Their total number in all India was returned in 1901 as nearly 2½ millions.
As in the case of many other small native states, the royal family of Kuch Behar lays claim to a divine origin in order to conceal an impure aboriginal descent. The greatest monarch of the dynasty was Nar Narayan, the son of Visu Singh, who began to reign about 1550. He conquered the whole of Kamrup, built temples in Assam, of which ruins still exist bearing inscriptions with his name, and extended his power southwards over what is now part of the British districts of Rangpur and Purnea. His son, Lakshmi Narayan, who succeeded him in Kuch Behar, became tributary to the Mogul Empire. In 1772 a competitor for the throne, having been driven out of the country by his rivals, applied for assistance to Warren Hastings. A detachment of sepoys was accordingly marched into the state; the Bhutias, whose interference had led to this intervention, were expelled, and forced to sue for peace through the mediation of the lama of Tibet. By the treaty made on this occasion, April 1773, the raja acknowledged subjection to the Company, and made over to it one-half of his annual revenues. In 1863, on the death of the raja, leaving a son and heir only ten months old, a British commissioner was appointed to undertake the direct management of affairs during the minority of the prince, and many important reforms were successfully introduced. The maharaja Sir Nripendra Narayan, G.C.I.E., born in 1862, was educated under British guardianship at Patna and Calcutta, and became hon. lieutenant-colonel of the 6th Bengal Cavalry. In 1897-98 he served in the Tirah campaign on the staff of General Yeatman-Biggs, and received the distinction of a C.B. He was present at the Jubilee in 1887, the Diamond Jubilee of 1897, and King Edward’s Coronation in 1902, and became a well-known figure in London society. In 1878 he married a daughter of Keshub Chunder Sen, the Brahmo leader. His eldest son was educated in England.
The town of Kuch Behar is situated on the river Tursa, and has a railway station. Pop. (1901), 10,458. It contains a college affiliated to the Calcutta University.
KUDU(koodoo), the native name for a large species of African antelope (q.v.), with large corkscrew-like horns in the male, and the body marked with narrow vertical white lines in both sexes. The female is hornless.Strepsiceros capensis(orS. strepsiceros) is the scientific name of the true kudu, which ranges from the Cape to Somaliland; but there is also a much smaller species (S. imberbis) in East and North-East Africa.
KUENEN, ABRAHAM(1828-1891), Dutch Protestant theologian, the son of an apothecary, was born on the 16th of September 1828, at Haarlem, North Holland. On his father’s death it became necessary for him to leave school and take a humble place in the business. By the generosity of friends he was educated at the gymnasium at Haarlem and afterwards at the university of Leiden. He studied theology, and won his doctor’s degree by an edition of thirty-four chapters of Genesis from the Arabic version of the Samaritan Pentateuch. In 1853 he became professor extraordinarius of theology at Leiden, and in 1855 full professor. He married a daughter of W. Muurling, one of the founders of the Gröningen school, which made the first pronounced breach with Calvinistic theology in the Reformed Church of Holland. Kuenen himself soon became one of the main supports of the modern theology, of which J. N. Scholten (1811-1885) and Karel Willem Opzoomer (b. 1821) were the chief founders, and of which Leiden became the headquarters. His first great work, an historico-critical introduction to the Old Testament,Historisch-kritisch onderzoek naar het onstaan en de verzameling van de boeken des Ouden Verbonds(3 vols., 1861-1865; 2nd ed., 1885-1893; German by T. Weber and C. T. Müller, 1885-1894), followed the lines of thedominant school of Heinrich Ewald. But before long he came under the influence of J. W. Colenso, and learned to regard the prophetic narrative of Genesis, Exodus, and Numbers as older than what was by the Germans denominatedGrundschrift(“Book of Origins”). In 1869-1870 he published his book on the religion of Israel,De godsdienst van Israël tot den ondergang van der Joodschen Staat(Eng. trans., 1874-1875). This was followed in 1875 by a study of Hebrew prophecy,De profeten en de profetie onder Israel(Eng. trans., 1877), largely polemical in its scope, and specially directed against those who rest theological dogmas on the fulfilment of prophecy. In 1882 Kuenen went to England to deliver a course of Hibbert lectures,National Religions and Universal Religion; in the following year he presided at the congress of Orientalists held at Leiden. In 1886 his volume on the Hexateuch was published in England. He died at Leiden on the 10th of December 1891.
Kuenen was also the author of many articles, papers and reviews; a series on the Hexateuch, which appeared in theTheologisch Tijdschrift, of which in 1866 he became joint editor, is one of the finest products of modern criticism. His collected works were translated into German and published by K. Budde in 1894. Several of his works have been translated into English by Philip Wicksteed. See the article in Herzog-Hauck,Realencyklopädie.
Kuenen was also the author of many articles, papers and reviews; a series on the Hexateuch, which appeared in theTheologisch Tijdschrift, of which in 1866 he became joint editor, is one of the finest products of modern criticism. His collected works were translated into German and published by K. Budde in 1894. Several of his works have been translated into English by Philip Wicksteed. See the article in Herzog-Hauck,Realencyklopädie.
KUEN-LUN,orKwen-Lun, a term used to designate generally the mountain ranges which run along the northern edge of the great Tibetan plateau in Central Asia. In a wider application it means the succession of ranges which extend from the Pamirs on the W. to 113° E., until it strikes against or merges in the steep escarpments of the S.E. flank of the Mongolian plateau. In the narrower acceptation it applies only to those ranges which part the desert of Takla-makan on the N. from the Tibetan plateau on the S. between the Pamirs and the transverse glen of the Kara-muren, that is, nearly to the longitude of the town of Cherchen (about 85½° E.). Although the use of the name is thus restricted in geographical usage, the mountain system so designated does, as a fact, extend eastwards as far as the great depression of Tsaidam (say 95° E.), though it is uncertain whether its direct orographical continuation eastwards is to be identified with the Astin-tagh, or, as F. Grenard and K. Bogdanovich believe—and with them Sven Hedin is inclined to agree—with the parallel ranges of Kalta-alaghan and Arka-tagh, which lie S. of the Astin-tagh. At any rate the Astin-tagh, whether it is the principal continuation of the Kuen-lun or only a subsidiary flanking system, is itself the westward continuation of the Nan-shan or Southern Mountains, which reach down far into China (to 113° E.).
Taken in its widest meaning, the Kuen-lun Mountains thus stretch in a wavy line for nearly 2500 m. from E. to W., and while in the W. their constituent ranges are folded and squeezed by lateral compression into a breadth of some 150-200 m., their summits being forced up to correspondingly higher altitudes, in the E. they spread out to a breadth of some 600 m., the ranges being in that quarter less folded, and consequently both flatter and lower. In the tectonic structure of Asia the Kuen-lun forms, as it were, the backbone of the continent. In point of age it is very much older than either the Himalayas to the S. or the Tian-shan to the N. But although the crests of its component ranges reach altitudes of 21,500 to 22,000 ft., they are not as a rule overtopped by individual peaks of commanding and towering elevation, as the Himalayas are, but run on the whole tolerably uniform and relatively at little greater altitude than the lofty valleys which separate them one from another. It is a strikingly marked characteristic of the northern edge of the Tibetan plateau that its outermost border-range (e.g.Western Kuen-lun and Astin-tagh) is throughout double; and this “twinning” of the mountain-ranges, as also of the intermont lake-basins among the Kuen-lun ranges, is a peculiar feature of the Tibetan plateau.
The supreme orographic importance of this great Central Asian mountain system was recognized in a fashion even by the geographers of ancient Greece. They used to suppose that an immense range of mountains crossed Asia from west to east on the parallel of the island of Rhodes, extending through Asia Minor, the Kurdish highlands, the N. of Persia, the N. of Bactria (Afghanistan), the Hindu-kush, and so on into China. This long range they supposed to separate the waters which flow N. to the Arctic from those which flow S. to the Indian Ocean. K. Ritter (Asien, ii.) was the first of modern geographers to recognize the true character of the Kuen-lun as a border range of the Tibetan plateau; and Baron von Richthofen (China, i. 1876) still further defined and accentuated the conception of the system by representing it as a complex arrangement of several parallel ranges, running in wavy lines from the Pamirs (76° E.) eastwards to 118° E. But though von Richthofen’s general conception of the Kuen-lun system was broadly sound and in accordance with facts, the details both of his description and of that of his pupil Wegener1require now very considerable revision, and need even to be in part recast, as a consequence of explorations and investigations made since they wrote by, amongst others, the Russian explorers N. M. Przhevalsky, M. V. Pyevtsov, V. I. Roboroysky, P. K. Kozlov, K. Bogdanovich, V. A. Obruchev, and (?) Skassi; by the Englishmen A. D. Carey, A. Dalgleish, St G. R. Littledale, H. Bower, H. H. P. Deasy and M. S. Wellby; by the American W. W. Rockhill; the Frenchmen J. L. Dutreuil de Rhins, F. Grenard, P. G. Bonvalot and Prince Henri d’Orléans; by the Hungarians L. von Loczy and Count Szechényi; and above all by the Swede Sven Hedin.Western Kuen-lun.—On the east the Pamir highlands are fenced off from the East Turkestan lowlands by the double border-ridge of Sarik-kol (the Sarik-kol range and the Muztagh or Kashgar range), which has its eastern foot down in the Tarim basin (4000-4500 ft.) and its western up on the Pamirs at 10,500 to 13,000 ft. above sea-level, while its own summits,e.g.the Muztagh-ata (25,780 ft.), shoot up far above the limits of perpetual snow. This double border-ridge is continued east of the meridian of Yarkand or Yarkent (77° E.) by a succession of twin ranges, all running, though under different names, from the W.N.W. to the E.S.E. According to the investigations of F. Stoliczka and K. Bogdanovich, the same fossils occur in both sets of border ranges, in the Sarik-kol and in their eastward continuations,e.g.corals,Stromatophorae,Bryozoa,Atrypa reticularis,A. latilinguisandA. aspera,Spirifer verneuili, &c., and these the latter geologist assigns to the Devonian epoch. These eastward continuations of the double border-range of the Pamirs are the constituent ranges of the Kuen-lun proper. The names given to them are the Kilian or Kiliang, the Khotan and the Keriya Mountains in the more northerly range and the Raskem or Raskan, the Sughet and the Ullugh-tagh Mountains in the more southerly range. Although they all decrease in altitude from west to east, they nevertheless reach elevations of 19,000 ft., with individual peaks ascending some 2000-2500 ft. higher. From the East Turkestan lowlands on the north the ascent is very steep, and the passes across both sets of ranges lie at great altitudes; for example, the pass of Sanju-davan in the lower range is 16,325 ft. above sea-level, and the Kyzyl-davan, farther east, is 16,900 ft., while the Sughet-davan in the higher range is 17,825 ft. The latter range is separated from the Karakorum Mountains by the deeply trenched gorge of the Raskem or Yarkand-darya, while the deep glen of the Kara-kash or Khotan-darya intervenes between the upper (Sughet Mountains) and the lower (Kilian Mountains) border-ranges. Altogether this western extremity of the Kuen-lun system is a very rugged mountainous region, a consequence partly of the intricacy of the flanking ranges and spurs, partly of the powerful lateral compression to which they have been subjected, and partly of the great and abrupt differences in vertical elevation between the crests of the ranges and the bottoms of the deep, narrow, rugged glens between them. In the broad orographical disposition of the ranges there is considerable similarity between north Tibet and west Persia, in that in both cases the ranges are crowded together in the west, but spread out wider as they advance towards the east. To the two principal ranges in this part of the system F. Grenard, who accompanied J. L. Dutreuil de Rhins on his journey in 1890-1895, gives the names the Altyn-tagh and Ustun-tagh, though he names no less than six parallel ranges altogether. Now as Altyn-tagh2is an accepted, though in point of fact erroneous, name for Astin-tagh, it is clear that Grenard considers the main Kuen-lun ranges to be continued directly by the Astin-tagh.From the transverse breach of the Keriya-darya (about 81½° E.) to that of the Kara-muren in the longitude of Cherchen (about 85½° E.) the parallel border-ranges of the Tibetan plateau trend to the E.N.E., and here occur in the lower or outer range the passes of Dalai-kurghan-art (14,290 ft.), Choka-davan,i.e.Littledale’s Chokur Pass (9530 ft.) and others at altitudes ranging from 8600 to11,500 ft., while in the upper range are the At-to-davan (16,600 ft.), Yapkak-lik-davan (15,550 ft.), Sarshu-davan (15,680 ft.) and others not named at 16,590 and 17,300 ft.Middle Kuen-lun.—Between the upper transverse glens of the Kara-muren (or Mitt River) and the Cherchen-darya stretches the short range of Tokuz-davan. From it, on the east side of the Cherchen-daryt, in about 86° E., the component ranges of the middle Kuen-lun begin to diverge and radiate outwards (i.e.to north and to south) like the fingers of the outspread human hand. And here at least four principal ranges or groups of ranges admit of being discriminated, namely the Astin-tagh, the Chimen-tagh, the Kalta-alaghan and the Arka-tagh, all belonging to the mountainous country which borders on the north the actual plateau region of Tibet. Although these several ranges, or systems of ranges, differ considerably in their orographical characteristics, the following description will apply generally to the entire region from the Astin-tagh southwards to the Arka-tagh. The broad features of the surface configuration are a series of nearly parallel mountain-ranges, running from W.S.W. E.N.E. to W.N.W. E.S.E., and separated by high intermont valleys, which are choked with disintegrated material and divided into a chequered pattern of self-contained, shallow lacustrine basins. As a rule the crests of the ranges are worn down by aerial denudation and have the general appearance of rounded domes. Hard rock (mostly granite and crystalline schists, with red sandstone in places) appears only in the transverse glens, which are often choked with their débris in the form either of gravel-and-shingle or loose blocks of stone or both. The flanks of the mountains are so deeply buried in disintegrated material that the difference in vertical altitude between the floors of the valleys and the summits of the ranges is comparatively small. But as each successive range, proceeding south, represents a higher step in the terraced ascent from the desert of Gobi to the plateau of Tibet, the ranges when viewed from the north frequently appear like veritable upstanding mountain ranges, and this appearance is accentuated by the general steepness of the ascent; whereas, when viewed on the other hand from the south, these several ranges, owing to their long and gentle slope in that direction, have the appearance of comparatively gentle swellings of the earth’ssurfacerather than of well-defined mountain ranges. As a rule, the streams flow alternately east and west down the intermont latitudinal valleys, until they break through some transverse glen in the range on the northern side of the valley. In the western parts of the system they mostly go to feed the Kara-muren or the Cherchen-darya, while farther east they flow down into some larger self-contained basin of internal drainage, such as the Achik-kol, the two lakes Kara-kol, or the Ghaz-kol, and even yet farther east make their way, some of them into the lakes of the Tsaidam depression or become lost in its sands or in those of the Kum-tagh desert on the north, or go to feed the headstreams of the great rivers, the Hwang-ho (Yellow River) and the Yangtsze-kiang (Blue River) in the south. It appears to be a rule that the rivers which eventually terminate in the deserts of Gobi and Takla-makan grow increasingly larger in magnitude from east to west. Another law appears to distinguish the hydrography of at any rate the great latitudinal valleys of the Arka-tagh and the Chimen valley (north of the Chimen-tagh): the streams flow close under the foot of the range that shuts in each individual valley on the north. But in respect of precipitation there is a very marked difference between the valleys of the north and those of the south. Whereas both the mountains and valleys of the Astin-tagh and of the Akato-tagh (the next large range to the Astin-tagh on the south) are arid and desolate in the extreme, smitten as it were with the desiccating breath of the desert, those of the Arka-tagh and beyond are supersaturated with moisture, so that, at any rate in summer, the surface is in many parts little better than a quaking quagmire. Throughout vegetation is scanty and faunal life poor in species, though in some respects certain of the species,e.g.wild yaks, wild asses (kulans), antelopes (orongoand others), marmots, hares and partridges exist locally in large numbers. The wild camel approaches the north outliers of the Astin-tagh, but rarely, if ever, ventures to enter their fastnesses. Bears, wolves, foxes, goats (kökmet), wild sheep (arkharis), lizards, earth-rats, and a small rodent (teshikan), with ravens, eagles, wild ducks and wild geese are the other varieties principally encountered. The vegetation consists almost entirely of scrubby bushes of several varieties, including tamarisks and wild briers, of reeds (kamish), and of grass on theyaylaks(pasture-grounds) of the middle ranges. On the Arka-tagh even the moss, the last surviving representative of the flora, disappears entirely. In the eastern Astin-tagh a variety of wild tea (chay, mountain tea) is used by the Mongols. Gold is obtained in very small quantities in a few places in the Astin-tagh and the Kalta-alaghan. The nomenclature of the numerous ranges in this part of the Kuen-lun is extremely confusing, owing to different travellers having applied the same name to different ranges and to different travellers have applied different names to what is probably often identically the same range. In this article the nomenclature adopted is that employed by the latest, and probably the most thorough, explorer of this part of Central Asia, namely, Sven Hedin. Nevertheless, owing to the fact that nearly all the longer and more important crossings of Tibet and its northern montane region have been made from north to south, or vice versa, that is, transversely across the ranges, and comparatively few from east to west along the intermont latitudinal valleys, the identifications between ranges in the east and ranges in the west are in more than one instance more or less doubtful.TheAstin-tagh, although it occupies a similar position to the twin ranges of the Western Kuen-lun, in that it forms the outermost escarpment or border-ridge on the north of the Tibetan plateau, would appear in the opinion of the most competent judges (e.g.Grenard, Bogdanovich, Sven Hedin, Przhevalsky), to be only a branch or subsidiary range of the main range of the Kuen-lun. It is not however a single, long, continuous chain, as it is shown, for example, on the map of the Russian general staff, but consists of two parallel main ranges, and in the east of three, and even to the N.E. of Tsaidam of four, parallel main ranges, flanked throughout by several subsidiary chains, spurs and offshoots. Beyond that it swells out into the vastmassifof Anambaruin-ula, which is traversed by at least three minor parallel chains. But on the east of the Anambaruin-ula it once more contracts to two main ranges, the more southerly being that which Przhevalsky called the Humboldt Range (crossed by a pass at 13,200 ft.). This branch is probably continued in the range which overhangs the Koko-nor on the south, namely, the south Koko-nor Range. The northern branch merges eastwards into the Nan-shan or Southern Mountains.3The passes in the Lower Astin-tagh range from altitudes of 10,150 to 10,700 ft., and in the Upper Astin-tagh at 11,770 to 15,680 ft. (Tash-davan), though one pass beside the Charkhlik-su is only 9660 ft. high. And as the relative altitudes of crest and pass remain approximately the same as in the Western Kuen-lun, it is evident how greatly the general elevation of the twin border ridge decreases towards the east. But there exists a striking difference between the crests of the Astin-tagh and those of the ranges which give rise to the gigantic ridge and furrow arrangement on the Tibetan plateau. “Here in the Astin-tagh the mountains, like those in the Kuruk-tagh,4are indeed severely weathered, but they always consist, from base to summit, of hard rock, bare and barren, most frequently piled up in eccentric, rugged masses, denticulated, pinnacled crests and peaks. On the Tibetan plateau, on the other hand, most of the ranges are distinguished by their rounded outlines and soft consistency, and their striking poverty in hard rock, which in the best cases only crops out near the summits. There too disintegration has been to a remarkable extent operative. This gives rise to the great morphological difference, that in the former regions, the Astin-tagh and the Kuruk-tagh, the products of disintegration are almost always carried away by the wind, and so disappear; no matter how powerful or how active the disintegration may be, none of the loosened material ever succeeds either in gathering amongst the mountains or in accumulating at their foot. The climate is so arid, and precipitation so extremely rare, that the fine powdery material falls a helpless prey to the winds. On the other hand, the precipitation on the Tibetan plateau is so copious, and so uniformly distributed, that it is able to retain the loosened materialin situ, and causes it to heap itself up in rounded masses on the flanks of the mountains that are its primitive source of origin, these projecting in great part like skeletons from the midst of their own ruins.”5The twin ranges of the Astin-tagh are fairly equivalent in point of magnitude and regularity; but while the Lower Range, on the north, sensibly decreases in altitude towards the east, the Upper Range, on the south, maintains its general altitude in a remarkable way, and is gapped by steep, wild, deeply incised transverse glens directed towards the north, and generally fenced in by dark precipitous walls of rock. The great valley between the two is “cut up into a series of self-contained basins, each serving as the gathering ground of the brooks that run down off the adjacent mountains. Outside the lower end of each large transverse glen there is a scree of sedimentary matter. These screes are however very flat and their lower edges generally reach all the way down to the central part of the basin, which is occupied by an expanse of yellow clay, perfectly flat and fairly hard, as well as dry and barren, often cracked into polygonal cakes and drawn out in the direction of the long axis of the valley.... But though the great morphological features of this latitudinal valley forcibly recall the latitudinal valleys of Tibet, the climatic differences give rise to differences between the basins corresponding to the differences between the mountain-ranges themselves. For while the self-contained basins of Tibet generally possess a salt lake in the middle, into which brooks and streams of greater or less magnitude gather, often from very considerable distances, these self-contained basins of the Astin-tagh are very small in area, and it is extremely seldom that their central parts receive any water at all, only in fact after copious rain. These terminal lakes, or more accurately sedimentary plains, are therefore almost always dry.”6The next parallel range on the south, theAkato-tagh, and the valley which separates it from the Astin-tagh, are equally arid and waterless. The valley, known by the general name of Kakir, meaning a “hard, dry, sterile expanse of clay,” is chequered with shallow self-contained basins of the usual type and has remarkably gentle slopesup to the mountains on both north and south. Its surface slopes from altitudes of 10,100 to 10,600 ft. in the west, where is the lake of Uzunshor (9650 ft.) to 9400 ft. in the east, in which direction it continues as far as the Anambaruin-ula (see below) and the plain or flat basin of Särtäng, a north extension of Tsaidam. This range of Akato-tagh, the Altun Range of Carey, is the same as that which on the map of the Russian general staff bears the name Chimen-tagh. Like the Astin-tagh it stretches towards the E.N.E., and, like it, appears to be built up of granite and schists, but its crest is greatly denuded, so that it is a mere crumbling skeleton protruding above the deep mantle of disintegrated material which masks its flanks. The slopes on both north and south are extremely gentle, but that on the south is eight to ten times as long as that on the north. In the east the range is mostly narrow, and dies away on the edge of the Tsaidam depression; but in the west it swells out into the lofty and imposing mass of the Ilve-chimen or Shia-manglay, which is capped with perpetual snow. This part of the range is crossed by the pass of Chopur-alik at an altitude of 16,160 ft., but farther east the passes lie at altitudes of 13,380 to 10,520 ft. The latitudinal valley that intervenes between the Akato-tagh and the next great range on the south, the Chimen-tagh, slopes for the most part eastwards, from 12,500 ft. down to the shallow salt lake of Ghaz-kol or Chimen-koli (9305 ft.). In the western part of this valley occurs the very important transverse water-divide of Gulcha-davan (14,150 ft.), which separates the basin of the Cherchen-darya that goes down into the Tarim basin from the area that drains down to the Ghaz-kol, which belongs to the Tsaidam depression. This, the Chimen valley, contains in places a good deal of drift-sand, which however is stationary in the mass and heaped up along the northern foot of the Chimen-tagh. Nevertheless the Akato-tagh is only of secondary importance in the general Kuen-lun system, being nothing more than a central ridge running along the broad Kakir valley that separates the Astin-tagh from the Chimen-tagh.The latter range, theChimen-tagh, is identical in its western parts with the Piazlik-tagh and in the east must be equated with the Tsaidam chain of Przhevalsky; and it is probably continued westwards by the range which the Russian explorers call the Moscow Range or the Achik-tagh, running north of the Achik-kol and, according to Przhevalsky, connecting on the west with the Tokuz-davan. The Chimen-tagh rises into imposing summits, some rounded, some pyramidal in outline, which are capped with snow, though the snow melts in summer. This range acts as a “breakwater” to the clouds, arresting and condensing the moisture which is carried northwards by the south winds. Hence its slopes are not so arid as those of the Akato-tagh and the Astin-tagh. Snow falls all the year round on the Chimen-tagh, even in July, and water is abundant everywhere. The southern slope of the range is gentle but short, the northern slope long and steep. Grass is able to grow, and animal life is more abundant. The range is crossed by passes at 13,970, 13,230 and 13,760 ft., and the Piazlik-tagh by a pass at an altitude of 13,640 ft.The next important range, still going south, is theKalta-alaghan, Carey’s Chimen-tagh Range, Przhevalsky’s Columbus Range and the range which is variously designated (e.g.by Pyevtsov) as the Ambal-ashkan, Kalga-lagan and Ara-tagh. This last is, however, properly the name of a short secondary range which rises along the middle (ara= middle) of the valley between the Chimen-tagh and the Kalta-alaghan. Not only is it of lower elevation than them both, but it dies away towards the west, the valleys on each side of it meeting round its extremity to form one broad, open valley, with an altitude of 11,790 to 13,725 ft. The Ara-tagh is crossed by a pass at an altitude of 14,345 ft. In the Kalta-alaghan, which is the culminating range of this part of the Kuen-lun, and is overtopped by towering, snow-clad peaks, the passes climb to considerably higher altitudes, namely, 14,560, 14,470, 14,430 and 14,190 ft., while the pass of Avraz-davan ascends to 15,700 ft. This range appears to be linked on to the Tokuz-davan by the Muzluk-tagh, in which there are passes at 16,870 and 15,450 ft. It is possible however that the Muzluk-tagh belongs more intimately to the Chimen-tagh system, that is, to the Moscow or Achik-kol ranges, Indeed Bogdanovich considers that the Tokuz-davan, the Muzluk-tagh, the Moscow Range and the Chimen-tagh form one single closely connected chain, in which he also places Przhevalsky’s isolated peak of Mount Kreml (15,055 ft.). Sven Hedin, whilst agreeing that this may possibly be the true conception, inclines to the view that the Achik-kol Range dies away towards the E., and that the Chimen-tagh and the Kalta-alaghan merge westwards into the border-ranges that lie north of the Muzluk-tagh and the Tokuz-davan. Unlike most of the other parallel ranges of N. Tibet, the Kalta-alaghan does not decrease, but it increases in elevation towards the east, where, like the Chimen-tagh, it abuts upon and merges in the ranges that border Tsaidam on the south.Immediately south of the Kalta-alaghan comes a relatively deep depression, theKum-kol valley, forming a very well-marked feature in the physical conformation of this region. It is crossed transversely by a water-divide which separates the basin of the twin-lakes of Kum-kol (12,700 ft.) from the basin of Tsaidam, some 3500 ft. lower. The floor of the valley consequently slopes away in both directions, like the Chimen valley between the Akato-tagh and the Chimen-tagh; and in so far as it slopes westwards towards the Kum-kol lakes it differs from nearly all the other great latitudinal valleys that run parallel with it, because they slope generally towards the east. Not far from the Kum-kol lakes there is a drift-sand area, though the dunes are stationary. The upper lake of Kum-kol (Chon-kum-kol) (12,730 ft.), which contains fresh water, is of small area (8 sq. m.) and in depth nowhere exceeds 13 ft.; but the lower lake (Ayak-kum-kol) (12,685 ft.), which is salt, is much bigger (283 sq. m.) and goes down to depths of 64 and 79 ft. Farther west, lying between the Muzluk-tagh and the Arka-tagh, is the lake of Achik-kol (13,940 ft.), 16½ m. broad and 50 m. in circuit.The next great parallel range is the lofty and imposingArka-tagh, the Przhevalsky Range of the Russian geographers, which has its eastward continuations in the Marco Polo Range (general altitude 15,750-16,250 ft.) and Gurbu-naiji Mountains of Przhevalsky. The Arka-tagh7is the true backbone of the Kuen-lun system, and in Central Asia is exceeded in elevation only by the Tang-la, a long way farther south, this last being probably an eastern wing of the Karakorum Mountains of the Pamirs region. At the same time the Arka-tagh is the actual border-range of the Tibetan plateau properly so-called; to the south of it none of the long succession of lofty parallel ranges which ridge the Tibetan highlands seems to have any connexion with the Kuen-lun system. Of great length, the Arka-tagh, which is a mountain-system rather than a range, varies greatly in configuration in different parts, sometimes exhibiting a sharply defined main crest, with several lower flanking ranges, and sometimes consisting of numerous parallel crests of nearly uniform altitude. Amongst these it is possible to distinguish in the middle of the system four predominant ranges, of which the second from the north is probably the principal range, though the fourth is the highest. The passes across the first range (north) lie at altitudes of 15,675, 16,420, 17,320 and 18,300 ft.; across the second at 16,830, 17,020, 17,070 and 17,220 ft.; across the third at 16,800, 16,660, 17,065, 17,830 and 17,880 ft.; and across the fourth at 16,540, 16,765, 16,780, 18,100 and 18,110 ft. The crests of the ranges lie comparatively little higher than the valleys which separate them, the altitudes in the latter running at 14,940 to 16,700 ft., if not higher, and being only 500 to 1000 ft. lower than the crests of the accompanying ranges. The Arka-tagh ranges do not culminate in lofty jagged, pinnacled peaks, but in broad rounded, flattened domes, a characteristic feature of the system throughout. These Arka-tagh mountains are built up, at all events superficially, of sand and powdery, finely sifted disintegrated material. Where the hard rock does crop out on the surface, it is so excessively weathered as to be with difficulty recognized as rock at all. The culminating summits of the ranges generally present the appearance of a flat, rounded swelling, and when they are crowned with glaciers, as many of them are, these shape themselves into what may be described as a mantle, a breast-plate, or a flat cap, from which lappets and fringes project at intervals; nowhere do there exist any of the long, narrow, winding glacier tongues which are so characteristic of the Alps of Europe. But not the slightest indication has been discovered that these mountains were ever panoplied with ice. The process of disintegration and levelling down has reached such an advanced stage that, if ever there did exist evidences of former glaciation, they have now become entirely obliterated, even to the complete pulverization of the erratic blocks, supposing there were any. The view that meets the eye southwards from the heights of the Kalta-alaghan is the picture of a chaos of mountain chains, ridges, crests, peaks, spurs, detached masses, in fact, montane conformations of every possible description and in every possible arrangement. Immediately north of the Arka-tagh the country is studded with three or four exceptionally conspicuous and imposing detached mountain masses, all capped with snow and some of them carrying small glaciers. Amongst them are Shapka Monomakha or the Monk’s Cap; the Chulak-akkan, which may however be only Shapka Monomakha seen from a different point of view; Tömürlik-tagh8(i.e.the Iron Mountain); and farther west, Ullugh-muz-tagh, which, according to Grenard, reaches an altitude of 24,140 ft. But the relations in which these detached mountain-masses stand to one another and to the Arka-tagh behind them have not yet been elucidated. In the vicinity of the Ullugh-muz-tagh there exist numerous indications of former volcanic activity, the eminences and summits frequently being capped with tuff, and smaller fragments of tuff are scattered over other parts of the Arka-tagh ranges.The next succeeding parallel range, theKoko-shili, which is continued eastwards by the Bayan-khara-ula, between the upper headstreams of the Hwang-ho or Yellow River and the Yangtsze-kiang, belongs orographically to the plateau of Tibet.The succession of ranges which follow one another from the deserts of Takla-makan and Gobi up to the plateau proper of Tibet rise in steps or terraces, each range being higher than the range to the north of it and lower than the range to the south of it. The difference in altitude between the lowest, most northerly range, the Lower Astin-tagh, and the most southerly of the Arka-tagh ranges amounts to nearly 7500 ft. With one exception, namely the climb out of the Kum-kol valley to the Arka-tagh, the first three steps areindividually the biggest; whereas the Upper Astin-tagh exceeds the Lower Astin-tagh by an altitude of some 1350 ft., it is itself exceeded by the Akato-tagh to the extent of 1760 ft. There is also a considerable rise of 880 ft. from the Akato-tagh to the Chimen-tagh. But between the Chimen-tagh, the Ara-tagh and the Kalta-alaghan there is comparatively little difference in point of elevation, namely, 730 ft. in all. The biggest ascent is that from the Kalta-alaghan to the Arka-tagh, namely, nearly 1850 ft. The ranges of the Arka-tagh, again, run at pretty nearly the same absolute general altitudes, namely, 16,470 to 17,260 ft. When the altitudes of the intermont latitudinal valleys are compared, the significance orographically of the Chimen valley and of the Kum-kol valley is strikingly emphasized. Both are much more deeply excavated than all the other latitudinal valleys that run parallel to them, the Chimen valley being 875 ft. above the valley to the north of it, but no less than 2235 ft. below the valley to the south of it. The case of the Kum-kol valley is altogether exceptional, for it lies not higher, but 680 ft. lower, than the valley to the north of it, and consequently the climb up out of it to the first (on north) of the Arka-tagh valleys amounts to no less than 2900 ft. Hence these ten parallel ranges of the middle Kuen-lun system may be grouped in three divisions—(1) the more strictly border ranges of the Upper and Lower Astin-tagh and the Akato-tagh; (2) the three ranges of Chimen-tagh, Ara-tagh and Kalta-alaghan, which may be considered as forming a transitional system between the foregoing and the third division; (3) the Arka-tagh, which constitute the elevated rampart of the Tibetan plateau proper.(J. T. Be.)TheNan-shan Highlandsoverlook Tsaidam on the N.E. They embrace a region 380 m. long and 260 m. wide, entirely occupied with parallel mountain ranges all running from the N.W. to the S.E. Broad, flat, longitudinal valleys, at altitudes of 12,000 to 14,000 ft. (9000 to 10,000 at the south-western border) and dotted with lakes (Koko-nor, 9970 ft.; Khara-nor, 13,285 ft.), fill up the space between these mountain ranges. In the S.E. the Nan-shan highlands abut upon the highlands of the Chinese province of Kan-suh, and near the great northward bend of the Hwang-ho they meet the escarpments by which the Great Khingan and the In-shan ranges are continued, and by which the Mongolian plateau steps down to the lowlands of China. On the N.E. the Nan-shan highlands have their foot on the Mongolian plateau (average altitude, 4000 ft.),i.e.in the Ala-shan. On the N.W. they are fringed by a border range, the Da-sue-shan, a continuation of the Astin-tagh, which rises to 12,200-13,000 ft. in its passes, and is pierced by several rivers flowing west to Lake Khala-chi or Khara-nor. This border-range, which continues on to the 97th meridian, separates the Nan-shan range from the Pe-shan range.On the S.W. the Nan-shan mountains consist of short irregular chains, separated by broad plains, dotted with lakes, which differ but slightly in altitude from Tsaidam (8800-9000 ft.). Next a succession of narrow ranges intervene between this lower border terrace and the higher terrace (12,000-13,500 ft.). The first mountain range on this higher terrace is Ritter’s range, covered in part with extensive snow-fields. The passes at both ends of this snow-cladmassiflie at altitudes of 15,990 ft. and 14,680 ft. The next range is Humboldt or Ama-surgu range, which runs N.W. to S.E. from the Astin-tagh to about 38° N., and is perhaps continued by the southern Kuku (Koko)-nor range, which strikes the Hwang-ho with an elevation of 7440 ft. It includes, in fact, several other parallel ranges—e.g.the Mushketov, Semenov, Suess, Alexander III., Bain-sarlyk—the mutual relations of which are, however, not yet definitely settled.Small lateral chains of mountains, rising some 2000 ft. above the general level of that plateau, connect the central Nan-shan with the next parallel ranges, namely, those of the eastern Nan-shan. The mutual relations of the latter, as well as the names of the several constituent chains, are equally unsettled. Thus, one of them is named indiscriminately Nan-shan, Richthofen Range and Momo-shan. In fact, the region is dominated by three ranges of nearly equal altitude, all lifting many of their peaks above the snow-line. Finally, there is a range of mountains, about 10,000 ft. high, named Lung-shan by Obruchev, which borders the Kan-chow and Lian-chow valley on the N.E., and belongs to the Nan-shan system. But the string of oases in Kan-suh province, which stretches between the towns named, lies on the lower level of the Mongolian plateau (4000 to 5000 ft.), so that the Lung-shan ought possibly to be regarded as a continuation of the Pe-shan mountains of the Gobi.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 ofEphedra,NitrariaandSalsolaceaegrow 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’sVersuch 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’sScientific 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’sIn Tibet and Chinese Turkestan(London, 1901), with a good map; F. Grenard’s vol. (iii.) of J. L. Dutreuil de Rhins’sMission scientifique dans la haute Asie, 1890-1895(n.p., 1897), also with a very useful map; W. W. Rockhill’sDiary of a Journey through Mongolia and Tibet in 1891 and 1892(Washington, 1894); M. S. Wellby’sThrough Unknown Tibet(London, 1898); P. G. Bonvalot’sDe Paris au Tonkin à travers le Tibet inconnu(Paris, 1892); St G. R. Littledale’s “A Journey across Tibet,” inGeog. Journal(May 1896); H. Bower’sDiary of a Journey across Tibet(London, 1894); theIzvestiaof the Russian Geog. Soc. andGeog. Journal, bothpassim.
The supreme orographic importance of this great Central Asian mountain system was recognized in a fashion even by the geographers of ancient Greece. They used to suppose that an immense range of mountains crossed Asia from west to east on the parallel of the island of Rhodes, extending through Asia Minor, the Kurdish highlands, the N. of Persia, the N. of Bactria (Afghanistan), the Hindu-kush, and so on into China. This long range they supposed to separate the waters which flow N. to the Arctic from those which flow S. to the Indian Ocean. K. Ritter (Asien, ii.) was the first of modern geographers to recognize the true character of the Kuen-lun as a border range of the Tibetan plateau; and Baron von Richthofen (China, i. 1876) still further defined and accentuated the conception of the system by representing it as a complex arrangement of several parallel ranges, running in wavy lines from the Pamirs (76° E.) eastwards to 118° E. But though von Richthofen’s general conception of the Kuen-lun system was broadly sound and in accordance with facts, the details both of his description and of that of his pupil Wegener1require now very considerable revision, and need even to be in part recast, as a consequence of explorations and investigations made since they wrote by, amongst others, the Russian explorers N. M. Przhevalsky, M. V. Pyevtsov, V. I. Roboroysky, P. K. Kozlov, K. Bogdanovich, V. A. Obruchev, and (?) Skassi; by the Englishmen A. D. Carey, A. Dalgleish, St G. R. Littledale, H. Bower, H. H. P. Deasy and M. S. Wellby; by the American W. W. Rockhill; the Frenchmen J. L. Dutreuil de Rhins, F. Grenard, P. G. Bonvalot and Prince Henri d’Orléans; by the Hungarians L. von Loczy and Count Szechényi; and above all by the Swede Sven Hedin.
Western Kuen-lun.—On the east the Pamir highlands are fenced off from the East Turkestan lowlands by the double border-ridge of Sarik-kol (the Sarik-kol range and the Muztagh or Kashgar range), which has its eastern foot down in the Tarim basin (4000-4500 ft.) and its western up on the Pamirs at 10,500 to 13,000 ft. above sea-level, while its own summits,e.g.the Muztagh-ata (25,780 ft.), shoot up far above the limits of perpetual snow. This double border-ridge is continued east of the meridian of Yarkand or Yarkent (77° E.) by a succession of twin ranges, all running, though under different names, from the W.N.W. to the E.S.E. According to the investigations of F. Stoliczka and K. Bogdanovich, the same fossils occur in both sets of border ranges, in the Sarik-kol and in their eastward continuations,e.g.corals,Stromatophorae,Bryozoa,Atrypa reticularis,A. latilinguisandA. aspera,Spirifer verneuili, &c., and these the latter geologist assigns to the Devonian epoch. These eastward continuations of the double border-range of the Pamirs are the constituent ranges of the Kuen-lun proper. The names given to them are the Kilian or Kiliang, the Khotan and the Keriya Mountains in the more northerly range and the Raskem or Raskan, the Sughet and the Ullugh-tagh Mountains in the more southerly range. Although they all decrease in altitude from west to east, they nevertheless reach elevations of 19,000 ft., with individual peaks ascending some 2000-2500 ft. higher. From the East Turkestan lowlands on the north the ascent is very steep, and the passes across both sets of ranges lie at great altitudes; for example, the pass of Sanju-davan in the lower range is 16,325 ft. above sea-level, and the Kyzyl-davan, farther east, is 16,900 ft., while the Sughet-davan in the higher range is 17,825 ft. The latter range is separated from the Karakorum Mountains by the deeply trenched gorge of the Raskem or Yarkand-darya, while the deep glen of the Kara-kash or Khotan-darya intervenes between the upper (Sughet Mountains) and the lower (Kilian Mountains) border-ranges. Altogether this western extremity of the Kuen-lun system is a very rugged mountainous region, a consequence partly of the intricacy of the flanking ranges and spurs, partly of the powerful lateral compression to which they have been subjected, and partly of the great and abrupt differences in vertical elevation between the crests of the ranges and the bottoms of the deep, narrow, rugged glens between them. In the broad orographical disposition of the ranges there is considerable similarity between north Tibet and west Persia, in that in both cases the ranges are crowded together in the west, but spread out wider as they advance towards the east. To the two principal ranges in this part of the system F. Grenard, who accompanied J. L. Dutreuil de Rhins on his journey in 1890-1895, gives the names the Altyn-tagh and Ustun-tagh, though he names no less than six parallel ranges altogether. Now as Altyn-tagh2is an accepted, though in point of fact erroneous, name for Astin-tagh, it is clear that Grenard considers the main Kuen-lun ranges to be continued directly by the Astin-tagh.
From the transverse breach of the Keriya-darya (about 81½° E.) to that of the Kara-muren in the longitude of Cherchen (about 85½° E.) the parallel border-ranges of the Tibetan plateau trend to the E.N.E., and here occur in the lower or outer range the passes of Dalai-kurghan-art (14,290 ft.), Choka-davan,i.e.Littledale’s Chokur Pass (9530 ft.) and others at altitudes ranging from 8600 to11,500 ft., while in the upper range are the At-to-davan (16,600 ft.), Yapkak-lik-davan (15,550 ft.), Sarshu-davan (15,680 ft.) and others not named at 16,590 and 17,300 ft.
Middle Kuen-lun.—Between the upper transverse glens of the Kara-muren (or Mitt River) and the Cherchen-darya stretches the short range of Tokuz-davan. From it, on the east side of the Cherchen-daryt, in about 86° E., the component ranges of the middle Kuen-lun begin to diverge and radiate outwards (i.e.to north and to south) like the fingers of the outspread human hand. And here at least four principal ranges or groups of ranges admit of being discriminated, namely the Astin-tagh, the Chimen-tagh, the Kalta-alaghan and the Arka-tagh, all belonging to the mountainous country which borders on the north the actual plateau region of Tibet. Although these several ranges, or systems of ranges, differ considerably in their orographical characteristics, the following description will apply generally to the entire region from the Astin-tagh southwards to the Arka-tagh. The broad features of the surface configuration are a series of nearly parallel mountain-ranges, running from W.S.W. E.N.E. to W.N.W. E.S.E., and separated by high intermont valleys, which are choked with disintegrated material and divided into a chequered pattern of self-contained, shallow lacustrine basins. As a rule the crests of the ranges are worn down by aerial denudation and have the general appearance of rounded domes. Hard rock (mostly granite and crystalline schists, with red sandstone in places) appears only in the transverse glens, which are often choked with their débris in the form either of gravel-and-shingle or loose blocks of stone or both. The flanks of the mountains are so deeply buried in disintegrated material that the difference in vertical altitude between the floors of the valleys and the summits of the ranges is comparatively small. But as each successive range, proceeding south, represents a higher step in the terraced ascent from the desert of Gobi to the plateau of Tibet, the ranges when viewed from the north frequently appear like veritable upstanding mountain ranges, and this appearance is accentuated by the general steepness of the ascent; whereas, when viewed on the other hand from the south, these several ranges, owing to their long and gentle slope in that direction, have the appearance of comparatively gentle swellings of the earth’ssurfacerather than of well-defined mountain ranges. As a rule, the streams flow alternately east and west down the intermont latitudinal valleys, until they break through some transverse glen in the range on the northern side of the valley. In the western parts of the system they mostly go to feed the Kara-muren or the Cherchen-darya, while farther east they flow down into some larger self-contained basin of internal drainage, such as the Achik-kol, the two lakes Kara-kol, or the Ghaz-kol, and even yet farther east make their way, some of them into the lakes of the Tsaidam depression or become lost in its sands or in those of the Kum-tagh desert on the north, or go to feed the headstreams of the great rivers, the Hwang-ho (Yellow River) and the Yangtsze-kiang (Blue River) in the south. It appears to be a rule that the rivers which eventually terminate in the deserts of Gobi and Takla-makan grow increasingly larger in magnitude from east to west. Another law appears to distinguish the hydrography of at any rate the great latitudinal valleys of the Arka-tagh and the Chimen valley (north of the Chimen-tagh): the streams flow close under the foot of the range that shuts in each individual valley on the north. But in respect of precipitation there is a very marked difference between the valleys of the north and those of the south. Whereas both the mountains and valleys of the Astin-tagh and of the Akato-tagh (the next large range to the Astin-tagh on the south) are arid and desolate in the extreme, smitten as it were with the desiccating breath of the desert, those of the Arka-tagh and beyond are supersaturated with moisture, so that, at any rate in summer, the surface is in many parts little better than a quaking quagmire. Throughout vegetation is scanty and faunal life poor in species, though in some respects certain of the species,e.g.wild yaks, wild asses (kulans), antelopes (orongoand others), marmots, hares and partridges exist locally in large numbers. The wild camel approaches the north outliers of the Astin-tagh, but rarely, if ever, ventures to enter their fastnesses. Bears, wolves, foxes, goats (kökmet), wild sheep (arkharis), lizards, earth-rats, and a small rodent (teshikan), with ravens, eagles, wild ducks and wild geese are the other varieties principally encountered. The vegetation consists almost entirely of scrubby bushes of several varieties, including tamarisks and wild briers, of reeds (kamish), and of grass on theyaylaks(pasture-grounds) of the middle ranges. On the Arka-tagh even the moss, the last surviving representative of the flora, disappears entirely. In the eastern Astin-tagh a variety of wild tea (chay, mountain tea) is used by the Mongols. Gold is obtained in very small quantities in a few places in the Astin-tagh and the Kalta-alaghan. The nomenclature of the numerous ranges in this part of the Kuen-lun is extremely confusing, owing to different travellers having applied the same name to different ranges and to different travellers have applied different names to what is probably often identically the same range. In this article the nomenclature adopted is that employed by the latest, and probably the most thorough, explorer of this part of Central Asia, namely, Sven Hedin. Nevertheless, owing to the fact that nearly all the longer and more important crossings of Tibet and its northern montane region have been made from north to south, or vice versa, that is, transversely across the ranges, and comparatively few from east to west along the intermont latitudinal valleys, the identifications between ranges in the east and ranges in the west are in more than one instance more or less doubtful.
TheAstin-tagh, although it occupies a similar position to the twin ranges of the Western Kuen-lun, in that it forms the outermost escarpment or border-ridge on the north of the Tibetan plateau, would appear in the opinion of the most competent judges (e.g.Grenard, Bogdanovich, Sven Hedin, Przhevalsky), to be only a branch or subsidiary range of the main range of the Kuen-lun. It is not however a single, long, continuous chain, as it is shown, for example, on the map of the Russian general staff, but consists of two parallel main ranges, and in the east of three, and even to the N.E. of Tsaidam of four, parallel main ranges, flanked throughout by several subsidiary chains, spurs and offshoots. Beyond that it swells out into the vastmassifof Anambaruin-ula, which is traversed by at least three minor parallel chains. But on the east of the Anambaruin-ula it once more contracts to two main ranges, the more southerly being that which Przhevalsky called the Humboldt Range (crossed by a pass at 13,200 ft.). This branch is probably continued in the range which overhangs the Koko-nor on the south, namely, the south Koko-nor Range. The northern branch merges eastwards into the Nan-shan or Southern Mountains.3The passes in the Lower Astin-tagh range from altitudes of 10,150 to 10,700 ft., and in the Upper Astin-tagh at 11,770 to 15,680 ft. (Tash-davan), though one pass beside the Charkhlik-su is only 9660 ft. high. And as the relative altitudes of crest and pass remain approximately the same as in the Western Kuen-lun, it is evident how greatly the general elevation of the twin border ridge decreases towards the east. But there exists a striking difference between the crests of the Astin-tagh and those of the ranges which give rise to the gigantic ridge and furrow arrangement on the Tibetan plateau. “Here in the Astin-tagh the mountains, like those in the Kuruk-tagh,4are indeed severely weathered, but they always consist, from base to summit, of hard rock, bare and barren, most frequently piled up in eccentric, rugged masses, denticulated, pinnacled crests and peaks. On the Tibetan plateau, on the other hand, most of the ranges are distinguished by their rounded outlines and soft consistency, and their striking poverty in hard rock, which in the best cases only crops out near the summits. There too disintegration has been to a remarkable extent operative. This gives rise to the great morphological difference, that in the former regions, the Astin-tagh and the Kuruk-tagh, the products of disintegration are almost always carried away by the wind, and so disappear; no matter how powerful or how active the disintegration may be, none of the loosened material ever succeeds either in gathering amongst the mountains or in accumulating at their foot. The climate is so arid, and precipitation so extremely rare, that the fine powdery material falls a helpless prey to the winds. On the other hand, the precipitation on the Tibetan plateau is so copious, and so uniformly distributed, that it is able to retain the loosened materialin situ, and causes it to heap itself up in rounded masses on the flanks of the mountains that are its primitive source of origin, these projecting in great part like skeletons from the midst of their own ruins.”5The twin ranges of the Astin-tagh are fairly equivalent in point of magnitude and regularity; but while the Lower Range, on the north, sensibly decreases in altitude towards the east, the Upper Range, on the south, maintains its general altitude in a remarkable way, and is gapped by steep, wild, deeply incised transverse glens directed towards the north, and generally fenced in by dark precipitous walls of rock. The great valley between the two is “cut up into a series of self-contained basins, each serving as the gathering ground of the brooks that run down off the adjacent mountains. Outside the lower end of each large transverse glen there is a scree of sedimentary matter. These screes are however very flat and their lower edges generally reach all the way down to the central part of the basin, which is occupied by an expanse of yellow clay, perfectly flat and fairly hard, as well as dry and barren, often cracked into polygonal cakes and drawn out in the direction of the long axis of the valley.... But though the great morphological features of this latitudinal valley forcibly recall the latitudinal valleys of Tibet, the climatic differences give rise to differences between the basins corresponding to the differences between the mountain-ranges themselves. For while the self-contained basins of Tibet generally possess a salt lake in the middle, into which brooks and streams of greater or less magnitude gather, often from very considerable distances, these self-contained basins of the Astin-tagh are very small in area, and it is extremely seldom that their central parts receive any water at all, only in fact after copious rain. These terminal lakes, or more accurately sedimentary plains, are therefore almost always dry.”6
The next parallel range on the south, theAkato-tagh, and the valley which separates it from the Astin-tagh, are equally arid and waterless. The valley, known by the general name of Kakir, meaning a “hard, dry, sterile expanse of clay,” is chequered with shallow self-contained basins of the usual type and has remarkably gentle slopesup to the mountains on both north and south. Its surface slopes from altitudes of 10,100 to 10,600 ft. in the west, where is the lake of Uzunshor (9650 ft.) to 9400 ft. in the east, in which direction it continues as far as the Anambaruin-ula (see below) and the plain or flat basin of Särtäng, a north extension of Tsaidam. This range of Akato-tagh, the Altun Range of Carey, is the same as that which on the map of the Russian general staff bears the name Chimen-tagh. Like the Astin-tagh it stretches towards the E.N.E., and, like it, appears to be built up of granite and schists, but its crest is greatly denuded, so that it is a mere crumbling skeleton protruding above the deep mantle of disintegrated material which masks its flanks. The slopes on both north and south are extremely gentle, but that on the south is eight to ten times as long as that on the north. In the east the range is mostly narrow, and dies away on the edge of the Tsaidam depression; but in the west it swells out into the lofty and imposing mass of the Ilve-chimen or Shia-manglay, which is capped with perpetual snow. This part of the range is crossed by the pass of Chopur-alik at an altitude of 16,160 ft., but farther east the passes lie at altitudes of 13,380 to 10,520 ft. The latitudinal valley that intervenes between the Akato-tagh and the next great range on the south, the Chimen-tagh, slopes for the most part eastwards, from 12,500 ft. down to the shallow salt lake of Ghaz-kol or Chimen-koli (9305 ft.). In the western part of this valley occurs the very important transverse water-divide of Gulcha-davan (14,150 ft.), which separates the basin of the Cherchen-darya that goes down into the Tarim basin from the area that drains down to the Ghaz-kol, which belongs to the Tsaidam depression. This, the Chimen valley, contains in places a good deal of drift-sand, which however is stationary in the mass and heaped up along the northern foot of the Chimen-tagh. Nevertheless the Akato-tagh is only of secondary importance in the general Kuen-lun system, being nothing more than a central ridge running along the broad Kakir valley that separates the Astin-tagh from the Chimen-tagh.
The latter range, theChimen-tagh, is identical in its western parts with the Piazlik-tagh and in the east must be equated with the Tsaidam chain of Przhevalsky; and it is probably continued westwards by the range which the Russian explorers call the Moscow Range or the Achik-tagh, running north of the Achik-kol and, according to Przhevalsky, connecting on the west with the Tokuz-davan. The Chimen-tagh rises into imposing summits, some rounded, some pyramidal in outline, which are capped with snow, though the snow melts in summer. This range acts as a “breakwater” to the clouds, arresting and condensing the moisture which is carried northwards by the south winds. Hence its slopes are not so arid as those of the Akato-tagh and the Astin-tagh. Snow falls all the year round on the Chimen-tagh, even in July, and water is abundant everywhere. The southern slope of the range is gentle but short, the northern slope long and steep. Grass is able to grow, and animal life is more abundant. The range is crossed by passes at 13,970, 13,230 and 13,760 ft., and the Piazlik-tagh by a pass at an altitude of 13,640 ft.
The next important range, still going south, is theKalta-alaghan, Carey’s Chimen-tagh Range, Przhevalsky’s Columbus Range and the range which is variously designated (e.g.by Pyevtsov) as the Ambal-ashkan, Kalga-lagan and Ara-tagh. This last is, however, properly the name of a short secondary range which rises along the middle (ara= middle) of the valley between the Chimen-tagh and the Kalta-alaghan. Not only is it of lower elevation than them both, but it dies away towards the west, the valleys on each side of it meeting round its extremity to form one broad, open valley, with an altitude of 11,790 to 13,725 ft. The Ara-tagh is crossed by a pass at an altitude of 14,345 ft. In the Kalta-alaghan, which is the culminating range of this part of the Kuen-lun, and is overtopped by towering, snow-clad peaks, the passes climb to considerably higher altitudes, namely, 14,560, 14,470, 14,430 and 14,190 ft., while the pass of Avraz-davan ascends to 15,700 ft. This range appears to be linked on to the Tokuz-davan by the Muzluk-tagh, in which there are passes at 16,870 and 15,450 ft. It is possible however that the Muzluk-tagh belongs more intimately to the Chimen-tagh system, that is, to the Moscow or Achik-kol ranges, Indeed Bogdanovich considers that the Tokuz-davan, the Muzluk-tagh, the Moscow Range and the Chimen-tagh form one single closely connected chain, in which he also places Przhevalsky’s isolated peak of Mount Kreml (15,055 ft.). Sven Hedin, whilst agreeing that this may possibly be the true conception, inclines to the view that the Achik-kol Range dies away towards the E., and that the Chimen-tagh and the Kalta-alaghan merge westwards into the border-ranges that lie north of the Muzluk-tagh and the Tokuz-davan. Unlike most of the other parallel ranges of N. Tibet, the Kalta-alaghan does not decrease, but it increases in elevation towards the east, where, like the Chimen-tagh, it abuts upon and merges in the ranges that border Tsaidam on the south.
Immediately south of the Kalta-alaghan comes a relatively deep depression, theKum-kol valley, forming a very well-marked feature in the physical conformation of this region. It is crossed transversely by a water-divide which separates the basin of the twin-lakes of Kum-kol (12,700 ft.) from the basin of Tsaidam, some 3500 ft. lower. The floor of the valley consequently slopes away in both directions, like the Chimen valley between the Akato-tagh and the Chimen-tagh; and in so far as it slopes westwards towards the Kum-kol lakes it differs from nearly all the other great latitudinal valleys that run parallel with it, because they slope generally towards the east. Not far from the Kum-kol lakes there is a drift-sand area, though the dunes are stationary. The upper lake of Kum-kol (Chon-kum-kol) (12,730 ft.), which contains fresh water, is of small area (8 sq. m.) and in depth nowhere exceeds 13 ft.; but the lower lake (Ayak-kum-kol) (12,685 ft.), which is salt, is much bigger (283 sq. m.) and goes down to depths of 64 and 79 ft. Farther west, lying between the Muzluk-tagh and the Arka-tagh, is the lake of Achik-kol (13,940 ft.), 16½ m. broad and 50 m. in circuit.
The next great parallel range is the lofty and imposingArka-tagh, the Przhevalsky Range of the Russian geographers, which has its eastward continuations in the Marco Polo Range (general altitude 15,750-16,250 ft.) and Gurbu-naiji Mountains of Przhevalsky. The Arka-tagh7is the true backbone of the Kuen-lun system, and in Central Asia is exceeded in elevation only by the Tang-la, a long way farther south, this last being probably an eastern wing of the Karakorum Mountains of the Pamirs region. At the same time the Arka-tagh is the actual border-range of the Tibetan plateau properly so-called; to the south of it none of the long succession of lofty parallel ranges which ridge the Tibetan highlands seems to have any connexion with the Kuen-lun system. Of great length, the Arka-tagh, which is a mountain-system rather than a range, varies greatly in configuration in different parts, sometimes exhibiting a sharply defined main crest, with several lower flanking ranges, and sometimes consisting of numerous parallel crests of nearly uniform altitude. Amongst these it is possible to distinguish in the middle of the system four predominant ranges, of which the second from the north is probably the principal range, though the fourth is the highest. The passes across the first range (north) lie at altitudes of 15,675, 16,420, 17,320 and 18,300 ft.; across the second at 16,830, 17,020, 17,070 and 17,220 ft.; across the third at 16,800, 16,660, 17,065, 17,830 and 17,880 ft.; and across the fourth at 16,540, 16,765, 16,780, 18,100 and 18,110 ft. The crests of the ranges lie comparatively little higher than the valleys which separate them, the altitudes in the latter running at 14,940 to 16,700 ft., if not higher, and being only 500 to 1000 ft. lower than the crests of the accompanying ranges. The Arka-tagh ranges do not culminate in lofty jagged, pinnacled peaks, but in broad rounded, flattened domes, a characteristic feature of the system throughout. These Arka-tagh mountains are built up, at all events superficially, of sand and powdery, finely sifted disintegrated material. Where the hard rock does crop out on the surface, it is so excessively weathered as to be with difficulty recognized as rock at all. The culminating summits of the ranges generally present the appearance of a flat, rounded swelling, and when they are crowned with glaciers, as many of them are, these shape themselves into what may be described as a mantle, a breast-plate, or a flat cap, from which lappets and fringes project at intervals; nowhere do there exist any of the long, narrow, winding glacier tongues which are so characteristic of the Alps of Europe. But not the slightest indication has been discovered that these mountains were ever panoplied with ice. The process of disintegration and levelling down has reached such an advanced stage that, if ever there did exist evidences of former glaciation, they have now become entirely obliterated, even to the complete pulverization of the erratic blocks, supposing there were any. The view that meets the eye southwards from the heights of the Kalta-alaghan is the picture of a chaos of mountain chains, ridges, crests, peaks, spurs, detached masses, in fact, montane conformations of every possible description and in every possible arrangement. Immediately north of the Arka-tagh the country is studded with three or four exceptionally conspicuous and imposing detached mountain masses, all capped with snow and some of them carrying small glaciers. Amongst them are Shapka Monomakha or the Monk’s Cap; the Chulak-akkan, which may however be only Shapka Monomakha seen from a different point of view; Tömürlik-tagh8(i.e.the Iron Mountain); and farther west, Ullugh-muz-tagh, which, according to Grenard, reaches an altitude of 24,140 ft. But the relations in which these detached mountain-masses stand to one another and to the Arka-tagh behind them have not yet been elucidated. In the vicinity of the Ullugh-muz-tagh there exist numerous indications of former volcanic activity, the eminences and summits frequently being capped with tuff, and smaller fragments of tuff are scattered over other parts of the Arka-tagh ranges.
The next succeeding parallel range, theKoko-shili, which is continued eastwards by the Bayan-khara-ula, between the upper headstreams of the Hwang-ho or Yellow River and the Yangtsze-kiang, belongs orographically to the plateau of Tibet.
The succession of ranges which follow one another from the deserts of Takla-makan and Gobi up to the plateau proper of Tibet rise in steps or terraces, each range being higher than the range to the north of it and lower than the range to the south of it. The difference in altitude between the lowest, most northerly range, the Lower Astin-tagh, and the most southerly of the Arka-tagh ranges amounts to nearly 7500 ft. With one exception, namely the climb out of the Kum-kol valley to the Arka-tagh, the first three steps areindividually the biggest; whereas the Upper Astin-tagh exceeds the Lower Astin-tagh by an altitude of some 1350 ft., it is itself exceeded by the Akato-tagh to the extent of 1760 ft. There is also a considerable rise of 880 ft. from the Akato-tagh to the Chimen-tagh. But between the Chimen-tagh, the Ara-tagh and the Kalta-alaghan there is comparatively little difference in point of elevation, namely, 730 ft. in all. The biggest ascent is that from the Kalta-alaghan to the Arka-tagh, namely, nearly 1850 ft. The ranges of the Arka-tagh, again, run at pretty nearly the same absolute general altitudes, namely, 16,470 to 17,260 ft. When the altitudes of the intermont latitudinal valleys are compared, the significance orographically of the Chimen valley and of the Kum-kol valley is strikingly emphasized. Both are much more deeply excavated than all the other latitudinal valleys that run parallel to them, the Chimen valley being 875 ft. above the valley to the north of it, but no less than 2235 ft. below the valley to the south of it. The case of the Kum-kol valley is altogether exceptional, for it lies not higher, but 680 ft. lower, than the valley to the north of it, and consequently the climb up out of it to the first (on north) of the Arka-tagh valleys amounts to no less than 2900 ft. Hence these ten parallel ranges of the middle Kuen-lun system may be grouped in three divisions—(1) the more strictly border ranges of the Upper and Lower Astin-tagh and the Akato-tagh; (2) the three ranges of Chimen-tagh, Ara-tagh and Kalta-alaghan, which may be considered as forming a transitional system between the foregoing and the third division; (3) the Arka-tagh, which constitute the elevated rampart of the Tibetan plateau proper.
(J. T. Be.)
TheNan-shan Highlandsoverlook Tsaidam on the N.E. They embrace a region 380 m. long and 260 m. wide, entirely occupied with parallel mountain ranges all running from the N.W. to the S.E. Broad, flat, longitudinal valleys, at altitudes of 12,000 to 14,000 ft. (9000 to 10,000 at the south-western border) and dotted with lakes (Koko-nor, 9970 ft.; Khara-nor, 13,285 ft.), fill up the space between these mountain ranges. In the S.E. the Nan-shan highlands abut upon the highlands of the Chinese province of Kan-suh, and near the great northward bend of the Hwang-ho they meet the escarpments by which the Great Khingan and the In-shan ranges are continued, and by which the Mongolian plateau steps down to the lowlands of China. On the N.E. the Nan-shan highlands have their foot on the Mongolian plateau (average altitude, 4000 ft.),i.e.in the Ala-shan. On the N.W. they are fringed by a border range, the Da-sue-shan, a continuation of the Astin-tagh, which rises to 12,200-13,000 ft. in its passes, and is pierced by several rivers flowing west to Lake Khala-chi or Khara-nor. This border-range, which continues on to the 97th meridian, separates the Nan-shan range from the Pe-shan range.
On the S.W. the Nan-shan mountains consist of short irregular chains, separated by broad plains, dotted with lakes, which differ but slightly in altitude from Tsaidam (8800-9000 ft.). Next a succession of narrow ranges intervene between this lower border terrace and the higher terrace (12,000-13,500 ft.). The first mountain range on this higher terrace is Ritter’s range, covered in part with extensive snow-fields. The passes at both ends of this snow-cladmassiflie at altitudes of 15,990 ft. and 14,680 ft. The next range is Humboldt or Ama-surgu range, which runs N.W. to S.E. from the Astin-tagh to about 38° N., and is perhaps continued by the southern Kuku (Koko)-nor range, which strikes the Hwang-ho with an elevation of 7440 ft. It includes, in fact, several other parallel ranges—e.g.the Mushketov, Semenov, Suess, Alexander III., Bain-sarlyk—the mutual relations of which are, however, not yet definitely settled.
Small lateral chains of mountains, rising some 2000 ft. above the general level of that plateau, connect the central Nan-shan with the next parallel ranges, namely, those of the eastern Nan-shan. The mutual relations of the latter, as well as the names of the several constituent chains, are equally unsettled. Thus, one of them is named indiscriminately Nan-shan, Richthofen Range and Momo-shan. In fact, the region is dominated by three ranges of nearly equal altitude, all lifting many of their peaks above the snow-line. Finally, there is a range of mountains, about 10,000 ft. high, named Lung-shan by Obruchev, which borders the Kan-chow and Lian-chow valley on the N.E., and belongs to the Nan-shan system. But the string of oases in Kan-suh province, which stretches between the towns named, lies on the lower level of the Mongolian plateau (4000 to 5000 ft.), so that the Lung-shan ought possibly to be regarded as a continuation of the Pe-shan mountains of the Gobi.
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 ofEphedra,NitrariaandSalsolaceaegrow 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’sVersuch 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’sScientific 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’sIn Tibet and Chinese Turkestan(London, 1901), with a good map; F. Grenard’s vol. (iii.) of J. L. Dutreuil de Rhins’sMission scientifique dans la haute Asie, 1890-1895(n.p., 1897), also with a very useful map; W. W. Rockhill’sDiary of a Journey through Mongolia and Tibet in 1891 and 1892(Washington, 1894); M. S. Wellby’sThrough Unknown Tibet(London, 1898); P. G. Bonvalot’sDe Paris au Tonkin à travers le Tibet inconnu(Paris, 1892); St G. R. Littledale’s “A Journey across Tibet,” inGeog. Journal(May 1896); H. Bower’sDiary of a Journey across Tibet(London, 1894); theIzvestiaof the Russian Geog. Soc. andGeog. Journal, bothpassim.