ASIA.

GENERAL INTRODUCTION.

ASIA, the greatest continent of the globe, in antiquity and amount of pcpulation, diversity and beauty of surface, and variety of productions, surpasses all the other divisions. While those countries of Europe which are now the most polished were yet immersed in the savage state, several nations of Asia had made considerable progress in many of the most abstruse sciences and the most useful arts of life; and having been the first civilized country, it was from it that arts and civilization were diffused over the rest of the earth. To Christians it likewise presents features of the highest interest as having been the principal scene of sacred history. The student of human nature will here find his amplest materials for research and speculation, in tribes recent as it were from Nature's hands, and displaying only the rudiments of humanity, and in nations considerably advanced in the career of civilization, while this advancement has been attained by means totally dissimilar to any thing which has been observed in Europe.

Name.] The name Asia is very ancient. Homer, Herodotus, and Euripides, apply it to a district of Lydia; and, as Malte Brun has observed in his Precis, the Greeks may very naturally have gradually extended this designation, originally given to a single province of Asia Minor, to the whole of the Asiatic continent as they became acquainted with it. It was thus that the French extended the name of the duchy of Allemagne to the whole of Germany; and that the ancient canton of Italia, in a remote corner of Calabria, imposed its name on the great peninsula of which it forms so inconsiderable a portion. The ancients appear to have even sometimes comprehended Egypt within the limits of Asia. A great many conjectures have been hazarded regarding the origin of this word. Some authors, among whom is the very learned Bochart, consider it to be of Phoenician or Hebrew origin, and to signify the middle:' this continent being, according to the ideas of the ancients, placed between the two other known continents of the world. Others again have traced its origin to the Sanscrit, and assert that it must have been originally used to signify the East,' or the land in which the morning light first dawns. The ancient Greeks-who boldly account in their mythology for the origin of all geographical names-derive the name of this continent from that of the wife of Prometheus; according to other traditions, Asia was the wife of Japhet, and the mother of Prometheus. Herodotus says that the Lydians supposed this name to have been derived from that of Asias, son of Cotyis, who gave his name also to the Ases, or Aciada, a Sardian tribe.

Boundaries.] On the N.W. Asia is separated from Europe only by an imaginary line, the course of which has been already described in our general introduction to Europe. It is likewise connected with Africa by the isthmus of Suez, which is only 48 geographical miles broad. Excepting

at these two points, Asia is everywhere surrounded by the sea. On its N.E. extremity it is divided from the continent of America by Behring's straits. On the N. it is bounded by the Icy ocean, which here forms a series of obscure gulfs and promontories, extending throughout the vast space of 130 degrees of longitude, but of which little knowledge has yet been obtained. Its boundary on the E. is the Pacific ocean, under the names of the sea of Kamtschatka, the sea of Japan, the Yellow sea, the Chinese sea, &c. On the S. it is bounded by the Indian ocean, under a variety of names derived from the different coasts which it laves, and which here forms the two great Indian peninsulas. The Arabian gulf, the isthmus of Suez, the Mediterranean, the Grecian archipelago, the Dardanelles, the sea of Marmora, the straits of Constantinople, the Black sea, and a part of the imaginary line already noticed, may be considered as forming the western boundaries of Asia.

Extent and Square Superficies.] A line drawn from East Cape at Behring's straits, to the entrance of the Arabian gulf, or perhaps to the straits of the Dardanelles, would denote the greatest extent of this continent, and would measure above 7,500 British miles; while a line drawn from Cape Severo-vostochnoi in Siberia, under the parallel say of 76° 10', to Cape Romania, the southern extremity of Malacca, in 1° 18′ N. lat. would measure nearly 4,500 geographical, or 5,166 British miles. Supposing its mean extent from E. to W. to be about 100 degrees, or 4,275 geographical miles, and its mean extent from N. to S. 60 degrees, or 3,600 geographical miles, its superficial area will be 15,390,000 geographical square miles. Hassel has calculated it from Arrowsmith's map of 1818 at 20,432,205 English square miles; and Gräberg, without the islands of the Indian ocean, at 16,262,100 square miles, or 722,760 German square miles. The fact is, all these admeasurements are mere approximations, and none of them can be regarded as presenting any thing like a claim to perfect accuracy.

GREAT CENTRAL PLATEAU.] The physical features of this vast continent, the courses of its rivers, the direction of its chains of mountains, the various climates of its different regions, and the relative situations, will be better understood by attending in the first place to the great central plateau of Asia. The central regions of the Asiatic continent rise into a vast and highly elevated plain, which extends some thousands of miles in every direction, and is flanked on all sides by high and precipitous mountains, which overlook all the surrounding countries, and some of which rise to the height of 28,000 feet. These mountains form four lines inclosing an irregular-sided figure; they meet on the N. W., N. E., S. E., and S. W.; and if we were to suppose these extreme points joined together by right lines, these lines would inclose a four-sided figure, divided into two triangles of equal sides by a diagonal line drawn from N. W. to S. E. It is from this elevated table-land, comprising, according to Humboldt's admeasurement, 3,226,000 geographical square miles, that the rivers of Asia flow as from a common centre to all the surrounding seas, and the numerous kingdoms stretch themselves around in gradual descent.

The northern flank of this plateau, generally known as the Altaian range, commences in the N. W., under the parallel of 48° 30', and in E. long. 75o, and first runs directly S. by the Adjagou-Tagh to the 47th parallel; it then turns to the E. by the Chamar-Daban, and reaches the Great Altai under the 48th parallel. The latter mountains mark its N. N. W. until it reaches the Little Altai in the parallel of 49° 30'. It then runs, in

course

the Little Altai, N.E. to the 51st parallel, when it turns S.S.E. in the mountains of Tangnou. Quitting these mountains under the 50th parallel, it runs S. E. to the mountains of Khanggai which carry it along to the 46th parallel. It then remounts to the N. E. in the Hongoor mountains, and reaches its N.E. extremity in the mountains of Kentey, in 48° N. lat., and 110° E. long. It is from the north side of the line we have now been tracing that Siberia descends almost without interruption to the shores of the Icy sea.

The eastern flank, beginning at the mountains of Kentey, runs E.S.E. to the great chain of In-shan or the mountains of Siolki, alongst which it runs first S. W. and then S. to the 40th parallel. From this point it takes a S.W. direction. To speak with precision of the commencement of the eastern and likewise of the southern flanks, so far as they respect China Proper and the Birman empire, is impossible for want of accurate data. As far as we can rely on the maps of China in the atlas of Du Halde and others, the eastern flank of the great plateau in this part commences on the frontier of Shansee, where the Kouen-lun or Kwang-lung, in 35o N. lat. and 102° 30′ E. long. runs S. till it touches the northern frontier of the Seefan in 33° N. lat., and thence bends S. and S.W. along the S.E. frontier of the Seefan, to the 30th parallel, where it strikes the Yalong river in 101° E, long. and thence runs S. to the point where the Yalong enters China in 101° E. long. and 28° N. lat. The eastern face of the Tibetian plateau, from the N. E. frontier of the Seefan in 33° N. lat. to this point, is called in Chinese Swee-Shaun or the country of snow.' From 28 N. lat. and 101 E. long., the flank of the plateau runs S.W. in an irregular line, crossing the points where the Kincha-Keeang, the Matchoo, and LooKeeang, successively leave the Alpine country of Tibet and enter Yunnan in China. At this last point, in 26° N. lat. and 98° 25′ E. long., commences the southern flank of the Tibetian plateau.

From the N.E. angle of the Birman dominions, where they meet those of Tibet and China, the southern flank runs on till it reaches the angle formed by the junction of the snowy chain of the Langtang with the main range, in 28° Ñ. lat. and 97° 25′ E. long. From this point the southern flank continues due W. to the pass of Pharee, in 89° E. long. and 27° 58′ N. lat. Hence it takes a W.N.W. course to the pass of Nitee, in 31° N. lat. and 80° E. long. It then runs W.N.W. shutting up the valleys of the Sutluj and Spiti from Northern Hindostan, and holds on till it meets the eastern frontier of Cashmere. Sweeping to the N.N.W. and around Cashmere, it crosses the Indus in 35° 30′ N. lat. and 75° E. long.; and thence runs W. in a very waving line till it joins the Beloor-Tagh, in 71° E. long. and 34° 30′ N. lat., which in its turn becomes the western flank of the great plateau. But it must be observed that though this point of junction forms the N.W. angle of the southern flank, the Himalaya still pursues an unbroken western course as far as the pass of Baumeeaun, 50 miles W. of the great snowy peak of the Hindoo-koosh, where the snowy chain terminates, and is lost in the Paropamisan mountains in 67° 40′ É. long.

and 35° N. lat.

From 34° 30′ N. lat. and 71° E. long. the Beloor runs a N.E. course to the source of the Oxus, in 73° E. long. and 38° N. lat. according to Elphinstone's map. Thence it runs N.N.W. to its junction with the N.W. termination of the Mooz-Tagh; thence, under the name of the Soung-ling, or 'Azure Mountains,' it forms the western boundary of Eastern Toorkistaun, till it meets the western extremity of the Alak-Tagh, or Speckled Moun