Chapter V: Part 5

ASHLAND, a city and the county-seat of Ashland county, Wisconsin, U.S.A., situated about 315 m. N.W. of Milwaukee, and about 70 m. E. of Superior and Duluth, in the N. part of the state, at the head of Chequamegon Bay, an arm of Lake Superior. Pop. (1890) 9956; (1900) 13,074, of whom 4417 were foreign-born; (1910, census) 11,594. It is served by the Chicago & North-Western, the Northern Pacific, the Chicago, St Paul, Minneapolis & Omaha, and the Wisconsin Central railways, and by several steamboat lines on the Great Lakes. The city is attractively situated, has a dry, healthful climate, and is a summer resort. It has a fine Federal building, one of the best high-school buildings in Wisconsin, the Vaughn public library (1895), a Roman Catholic hospital, and the Rinehart hospital, and is the seat of the Northland College and Academy (Congregational). Ashland has an excellent harbour, has large iron-ore and coal docks, and is the principal port for the shipment of iron ore from the rich Gogebic Range, the annual ore shipment approximating 3,500,000 tons, valued at $12,000,000, and it has also an extensive export trade in lumber. Brownstone quarried in the vicinity is also an important export. The lake trade amounts to more than $35,000,000 annually. Ashland has large saw-mills, iron and steel rolling mills, foundries and machine shops, railway repair shops (of the Chicago & North-Western railway), knitting works, and manufactories of dynamite, sulphite fibre, charcoal and wood-alcohol. In 1905 its total factory product was valued at $4,210,265. Settled about 1854, Ashland was incorporated as a village in 1863 and received a city charter in 1887.

ASHLAR, also written ASHLER, ASHELERE, &c. (probably from Lat. _axilla_, diminutive of _axis_, an axle), hewn or squared stone, generally applied to that used for facing walls. In a contract of date 1398 we read--"Murus erit exterius de puro lapide vocato _achilar_, plane incisso, interius vero de lapide fracto vocato _roghwall_." "Clene hewen ashler" often occurs in medieval documents; this no doubt means tooled or finely worked, in contradistinction to rough-axed faces.

An "ashlar piece" in building is an upright piece of timber framed between the common rafters and the wall plate.

ASHLEY, WILLIAM JAMES (1860- ), English economist, was born in London on the 25th of February 1860. He was educated at St Olave's grammar school and Balliol College, Oxford, and became a fellow of Lincoln College. In 1888 he was appointed professor of political economy and constitutional history in Toronto University, a post which he resigned in 1892, in order to become professor of economic history at Harvard University. In 1901 he was appointed professor of commerce and finance in Birmingham University and in 1902 dean of the faculty of commerce. Professor Ashley became well known for his work on the early history of English industry, and for his prominence among those English economists who supported Mr Chamberlain's tariff reform movement. His most important works are _Early History of the English Woollen Industry_ (1887); _Introduction to English Economic History and Theory_ (2 parts, 1888-1893); _Surveys, Historic and Economic_ (1900); _Adjustment of Wages_ (1903); the _Tariff Problem_ (2nd ed. 1904); _Progress of the German Working Classes_ (1904).

ASHMOLE, ELIAS (1617-1692), English antiquarian, and founder of the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford, was born at Lichfield on the 23rd of May 1617, the son of a saddler. In 1638 he became a solicitor, and in 1644 was appointed commissioner of excise. At Oxford, whither this brought him when the Royalist Parliament was sitting there, he made friends with Captain (afterwards Sir) George Wharton, through whose influence he obtained the king's commission as captain of horse and comptroller of the ordnance. In 1646 he was initiated as a Freemason--the first gentleman, or amateur, to be "accepted." In 1649 he married Lady Mainwaring, some twenty years his senior and a relative of his first wife who had died eight years before. This marriage placed him in a position of affluence that enabled him to devote his whole time to his favourite studies. His interest in astrology, aroused by Wharton, and by William Lilly,--whom with other astrologers he met in London in 1646,--seems, in the following years, to have subsided in favour of heraldry and antiquarian research. In 1657 his wife petitioned for a separation, but failing to gain her case returned to live with him. Between this crisis in his domestic life and the time of her death in 1668, Ashmole was in high favour at court. He was made successively Windsor herald, commissioner, comptroller and accountant-general of excise, commissioner for Surinam and comptroller of the White Office. He afterwards refused the office of Garter king-at-arms in favour of Sir William Dugdale, whose daughter he had married in 1668. In 1672 he published his _Institutions, Laws and Ceremonies of the Order of the Garter_, a work which was practically exhaustive, and is an example of his diligence and years of patient antiquarian research. Five years later he presented the Ashmolean Museum, the first public museum of curiosities in the kingdom, the larger part of which he had inherited from a friend, John Tradescant, to the university of Oxford. He made it a condition that a suitable building should be erected for its reception, and the collection was not finally installed until 1683. Subsequently he made the further gift to the university of his library. He died on the 18th of May 1692.

ASHRAF (SHUREFA, SHERIFS), a small scattered tribe of African "Arabs" settled near Tokar, in the valleys of the Gash and Baraka, and in the Amarar country north of Suakin. They call themselves Beni Hashin, and claim descent from Mahomet; hence their name, _sherif_ (plural _ashraf_) being the title applied to descendants of the prophet. In the time of the khalifa Abdulla (1885-1898), Ashraf was the name by which the family and adherents of his late master the mahdi were known, the mahdi's family claiming to be Ashraf. The Ashraf of Tokar remained loyal to Egypt during the Sudan troubles.

See _Anglo-Egyptian Sudan_, edited by Count Gleichen (London, 1905);
_Fire and Sword in the Sudan_, by Slatin Pasha (London, 1896); for the
Ashraf or Sherifs in Arabia, see ARABIA: _Geography_.

ASHREF, a town of Persia in the province of Mazandaran, about 50 m. W. of Astarabad and 5 m. inland from the Caspian Sea, in 36 deg. 42' N. and 53 deg. 32' E. The population is about 6000, comprising descendants of some Georgians introduced by Shah Abbas I. (1587-1629) and a number of Gudars, a peculiar pariah race, probably of Indian origin. The place was without importance until 1612, when Shah Abbas began building and laying out the palaces and gardens in the neighbourhood now collectively known as Bagh i Shah (the garden of the shah). The palaces, completed in 1627, are now in ruins, but the gardens with their luxuriant vegetation and gigantic cypress and orange trees ate well worth a visit. There were originally six separate gardens, all contained within one large wall but separated one from another by high walls. The principal palace was the Chehel Situn (forty pillars), destroyed by the Afghans in 1723, and, although rebuilt by Nadir Shah in 1731, already in ruins in 1743. About 3/4 m. north of the town is the Safi-abad garden, with a palace built by Shah Safi (1629-1642) for his daughter. It is situated on a lovely wooded hill, and was repaired and in part renovated about 1870 by Nasiru'd-Din Shah.

ASHTABULA, a city of Ashtabula county, Ohio, U.S.A., in Ashtabula township, on the Ashtabula river and Lake Erie, and 54 m. N.E. of Cleveland. Pop. (1890) 8338; (1900) 12,949, of whom 3688 were foreign-born; (1910, census) 18,266. There is a large Finnish-born population in the city and in Ashtabula county, and the _Amerikan Sanomat_, established here in 1897, is one of the most widely read Finnish weeklies in the country. Ashtabula is served by the Pennsylvania, the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern, and the New York, Chicago & St Louis railways, and by inter-urban electric lines. The city is built on the high bank of the river about 75 ft. above the lake, and commands good views of diversified scenery. There is a public library. Ashtabula has an excellent harbour, to and from which large quantities of iron ore and coal are shipped. More iron ore is received at this port annually than at any other port in the country, or, probably, in the world; the ore is shipped thence by rail to Pittsburg, Youngstown and other iron manufacturing centres. In 1907 the port received 7,542,149 gross tons of iron ore, and shipped 2,632,027 net tons of soft coal. Among the city's manufactures are leather, worsted goods, agricultural implements, and foundry and machine shop products; in 1905 the total value of the factory product was $1,895,454, an increase of 114.3% in five years. There are large green-houses in and near Ashtabula, and quantities of lettuce, cucumbers and tomatoes are raised under glass and shipped to Pittsburg and other large cities. The first settlement here was made about 1801. Ashtabula township was created in 1808, and from it the townships of Kingsville, Plymouth and Sheffield have subsequently been formed. The village of Ashtabula was incorporated in 1831, and received a city charter in 1891. The name _Ashtabula_ is an Indian word first applied to the river and said to mean "fish river."

ASHTON-IN-MAKERFIELD, an urban district in the Newton parliamentary division of Lancashire, England, 4 m. S. of Wigan, on the Great Central railway. Pop. (1901) 18,687. The district is rich in minerals, and has large collieries, and a colliery company's institute; iron goods are manufactured.

ASHTON-UNDER-LYNE, a market-town and municipal and parliamentary borough of Lancashire, England, on the river Tame, a tributary of the Mersey, 185 m. N. W. by N. from London and 6-1/2 E. from Manchester. Area, 1346 acres. Pop. (1891) 40,486; (1901) 43,890. It is served by the London & North-Western and the Lancashire & Yorkshire railways (Charlestown station), and by the Great Central (Park Parade station). The church of St Michael is Perpendicular, but almost wholly rebuilt. In the vicinity are barracks. The Old Hall, or manor house of the Asshetons, remains in an altered form, with an ancient prison adjoining, and the name of Gallows Meadow, still preserved, recalls the summary execution of justice by the lords of the manor. In the vicinity of Ashton a few picturesque old houses remain among the numerous modern residences. Stamford Park, presented by Lord Stamford, is shared by the towns of Ashton and Stalybridge, which extends across the Tame into Cheshire. A technical school, school of art and free library, and several hospitals are maintained. Chief among industries are cotton-spinning, hat-making and iron-founding and machinery works; and there are large collieries in the neighbourhood. The parliamentary borough, which returns one member, extends into Cheshire. The corporation consists of a mayor, 8 aldermen and 24 councillors.

The derivation from the Saxon _aesc_ (ash) and _tun_ (an enclosed place) accounts for the earliest orthography Estun. The addition _subtus lineam_ is found in ancient deeds and is due to the position of the place below the line or boundary of Cheshire, which once formed the frontier between the kingdoms of Northumbria and Mercia. The manor was granted to Roger de Poictou by William I., but before the end of his reign came to the Greslets as part of the barony of Manchester. It was held by the Asshetons from 1335 to 1515, when it passed by marriage to the Booths of Dunham Massey, and is now held by the earl of Stamford, the representative of that family. The lord of the manor still holds the ancient court-leet and court-baron half-yearly in May and November, in which cognizance is taken of breaches of agreement among the tenants, especially concerning the repair of roads and cultivation of lands. The place had long enjoyed the name of borough, but it was not till 1847 that a charter of incorporation was granted. Under the Reform Act (1832) it returns one member. One of the markets dates back to 1436. The ancient industry was woollen, but soon after the invention of the spinning frame the cotton trade was introduced, and as early as 1769 the weaving of ginghams, nankeens and calicoes was carried on, and the weaving of cotton yarn by machinery soon became the staple industry. A chapel or church existed here as early as 1261-1262.

ASH WEDNESDAY, in the Western Church, the first day of Lent (q.v.), so called from the ceremonial use of ashes, as a symbol of penitence, in the service prescribed for the day. The custom, which is ultimately based on the penance of "sackcloth and ashes" spoken of by the prophets of the Old Testament, has been dropped in those of the reformed Churches which still observe the fast; but it is retained in the Roman Catholic Church, the day being known as _dies cinerum_ (day of ashes) or _dies cineris et cilicii_ (day of ash and sackcloth). The ashes, obtained by burning the palms or their substitutes used in the ceremonial of the previous Palm Sunday, are placed in a vessel on the altar before High Mass. The priest, vested in a violet cope, prays that God may send His angel to hallow the ash, that it become a _remedium salubre_ for all penitents. After another prayer the ashes are thrice sprinkled with holy water and thrice censed. Then the priest invites those present to approach and, dipping his thumb in the ashes, marks them as they kneel with the sign of the cross on the forehead (or in the case of clerics on the place of tonsure), with the words: _Memento, homo, quid pulvis es et in pulverem reverteris_ (Remember, man, that thou art dust and unto dust thou shall return). The celebrant himself either sprinkles the ash on his own head in silence, or receives it from the priest of highest dignity present.

This ceremony is derived from the custom of public penance in the early Church, when the sinner to be reconciled had to appear in the congregation clad in sackcloth and covered with ashes (cf. Tertullian, _De Pudicitia_, 13). At what date this use was extended to the whole congregation is not known. The phrase _dies cinerum_ appears in the earliest extant copies of the Gregorian Sacramentary, and it is probable that the custom was already established by the 8th century. The Anglo-Saxon homilist Aelfric, in his _Lives of the Saints_ (996 or 997), refers to it as in common use; but the earliest evidence of its authoritative prescription is a decree of the synod of Beneventum in 1091.

Of the reformed Churches the Anglican Church alone marks the day by any special service. This is known as the Commination service, its distinctive element being the solemn reading of "the general sentences of God's cursing against sinners, gathered out of the seven and twentieth chapter of Deuteronomy, and other places of Scripture." The lections for the day are the same as in the Roman Church (Joel ii. 12, &c., and Matt. vi. 16, &c.). In the American Prayer Book the office of Commination is omitted, with the exception of the three concluding prayers, which are derived from the prayers and anthems said or sung during the blessing and distribution of the ashes according to the Sarum Missal. The ceremonial of the ashes was not proscribed in England at the Reformation; it was indeed enjoined by a proclamation of Henry VIII. (February 26, 1538) and again in 1550 under Edward VI.; but it had fallen into complete disuse by the beginning of the 17th century.

See Wetzer and Welte, _Kirchenlexikon_, and Herzog-Hauck,
_Realencyklopadie_ (3rd ed.), s. "_Aschermittuoch_"; L. Duchesne,
_Christian Worship_, trans. by M.L. McClure (London, 1904).

ASHWELL, LENA (1872- ), English actress, was the daughter of Commander Pocock, R.N. In 1896 she married the actor Arthur Playfair, whom she divorced in 1908; later in the latter year she married Dr Simson. In 1895 she played Elaine in Sir Henry Irving's production of _King Arthur_ at the Lyceum, and again acted with him in 1903 in _Dante_. She made her first striking success, however, on the London stage in _Mrs Dane's Defence_ with Sir Charles Wyndham in 1900, and a few years later her acting in _Leah Kleschna_ confirmed her position as one of the leading actresses in London. In 1907 she started under her own management at the Kingsway theatre.

ASIA, the name of one of the great continents into which the earth's surface is divided, embracing the north-eastern portion of the great mass of land which constitutes what is generally known as the Old World, of which Europe forms the north-western and Africa the south-western region.

Much doubt attaches to the origin of the name. Some of the earliest Greek geographers divided their known world into two portions only, Europe and Asia, in which last Libya (the Greek name for Africa) was included. Herodotus, who ranks Libya as one of the chief divisions of the world, separating it from Asia, repudiates as fables the ordinary explanations assigned to the names Europe and Asia, but confesses his inability to say whence they came. It would appear probable, however, that the former of these words was derived from an Assyrian or Hebrew root, which signifies the west or setting sun, and the latter from a corresponding root meaning the east or rising sun, and that they were used at one time to imply the west and the east. There is ground also for supposing that they may at first have been used with a specific or restricted local application, a more extended signification having eventually been given to them. After the word Asia had acquired its larger sense, it was still specially used by the Greeks to designate the country around Ephesus. The idea of Asia as originally formed was necessarily indefinite, and long continued to be so; and the area to which the name was finally applied, as geographical knowledge increased, was to a great extent determined by arbitrary and not very precise conceptions, rather than on the basis of natural relations and differences subsisting between it and the surrounding regions.

GEOGRAPHY

Boundaries.

The northern boundary of Asia is formed by the Arctic Ocean; the coast-line falls between 70 deg. and 75 deg. N., and so lies within the Arctic circle, having its extreme northern point in Cape Sivero-Vostochnyi (i.e. north-east) or Chelyuskin, in 78 deg. N. On the south the coast-line is far more irregular, the Arabian Sea, the Bay of Bengal, and the China Sea reaching about to the northern tropic at the mouths of the Indus, of the Ganges and of the Canton river; while the great peninsulas of Arabia, Hindostan and Cambodia descend to about 10 deg. N., and the Malay peninsula extends within a degree and a half of the equator. On the west the extreme point of Asia is found on the shore of the Mediterranean, at Cape Baba, in 26 deg. E., nor far from the Dardanelles. Thence the boundary passes in the one direction through the Mediterranean, and down the Red Sea to the southern point of Arabia, at the strait of Bab-el-Mandeb, in 45 deg. E.; and in the other through the Black Sea, and along the range of Caucasus, following approximately 40 deg. N. to the Caspian, whence it turns to the north on a line not far from the 60th meridian, along the Ural Mountains, and meets the Arctic Ocean nearly opposite the island of Novaya Zemlya. The most easterly point of Asia is East Cape (Vostochnyi, i.e. east, or Dezhnev), in 190 deg. E., at the entrance of Bering Strait. The boundary between this point and the extremity of the Malay Peninsula follows the coast of the Northern Pacific and the China Sea, on a line deeply broken by the projection of the peninsulas of Kamchatka and Korea, and the recession of the Sea of Okhotsk, the Yellow Sea, and the Gulfs of Tongking and Siam.

Islands.

On the east and south-east of Asia are several important groups of islands, the more southern of which link this continent to Australia, and to the islands of the Pacific. The Kurile islands, the Japanese group, Luchu, Formosa and the Philippines, may be regarded as unquestionable outliers of Asia. Between the islands of the Malay archipelago from Sumatra to New Guinea, and the neighbouring Asiatic continent, no definite relations appear ever to have existed, and no distinctly marked boundary for Asia has been established by the old geographers in this quarter. Modern science, however, has indicated a line of physical separation along the channel between Borneo and Celebes, called the Straits of Macassar, which follows approximately 120 deg. E., to the west of which the flora and fauna are essentially Asiatic in their type, while to the south and east the Australian element begins to be distinctly marked, soon to become predominant. To this boundary has been given the name of Wallace's line, after the eminent naturalist, A.R. Wallace, who first indicated its existence.

Form of continent.

Owing to the great extent of Asia, it is not easy to obtain a correct conception of the actual form of its outline from ordinary maps, the distortions which accompany projections of large spherical areas on a flat surface being necessarily great and misleading. Turning, therefore, to a globe, Asia, viewed as a whole, will be seen to have the form of a great isosceles spherical triangle, having its north-eastern apex at East Cape (Vostochnyi), in Bering Strait; its two equal sides, in length about a quadrant of the sphere, or 6500 m., extending on the west to the southern point of Arabia, and on the east to the extremity of the Malay peninsula; and the base between these points occupying about 60 deg. of a great circle, or 4500 m., and being deeply indented by the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal on either side of the Indian peninsula. A great circle, drawn through East Cape and the southern point of Arabia, passes nearly along the coast-line of the Arctic Ocean, over the Ural Mountains, through the western part of the Caspian, and nearly along the boundary between Persia and Asiatic Turkey. Asia Minor and the north-western half of Arabia lie outside such a great circle, which otherwise indicates, with fair accuracy, the north-western boundary of Asia. In like manner a great circle drawn through East Cape and the extremity of the Malay peninsula, passes nearly over the coasts of Manchuria, China and Cochin-China, and departs comparatively little from the eastern boundary.

General physiography.

Asia is divided laterally along the parallel of 40 deg. north by a
depression which, beginning on the east of the desert of Gobi, extends
westwards through Mongolia to Chinese Turkestan. To the west of
Kashgar the central depression is limited by the meridional range of
Sarikol and the great elevation of the Pamir, of which the Sarikol is
the eastern face. The level of this depression (once a vast inland
sea) between the mountains which enclose the sources of the Hwang-ho
and the Sarikol range probably never exceeds 2000 ft. above sea, and
modern researches tend to prove that in the central portions of the
Gobi (about Lop Nor) it may be actually below sea-level. A vast
proportion of the continent north of this central line is but a few
hundred feet in altitude. Shelving gradually upward from the low flats
of Siberia the general continental level rises to a great central
water-parting, or divide, which stretches from the Black Sea through
the Elburz and the Hindu Kush to the Tian-shan mountains in the Pamir
region, and hence to Bering Strait on the extreme north-east. This
great divide is not always marked by well-defined ranges facing
steeply either to the north or south. There are considerable spaces
where the strike, or axis, of the main ranges is transverse to the
water-parting, which is then represented by intermediate highlands
forming lacustrine regions with an indefinite watershed. Only a part
of this great continental divide (including such ranges as the Hindu
Kush, Tian-shan, Altai or Khangai) rises to any great height, a
considerable portion of it being below 5000 ft. in altitude. South of
the divide the level at once drops to the central depression of Gobi,
which forms a vast interior, almost waterless space, where the local
drainage is lost in deserts or swamps. South of this enclosed
depression is another great hydrographic barrier which parts it from
the low plains of the Amur, of China, Siam and India, bordered by the
shallows of the Yellow Sea and the shoals which enclose the islands of
Japan and Formosa, all of them once an integral part of the continent.
This second barrier is one of the most mighty upheavals in the world,
by reason both of its extent and its altitude. Starting from the Amur
river and reaching along the eastern margin of the Gobi desert towards
the sources of the Hwang-ho, it merges into the Altyn-tagh and the
Kuen-lun, forming the northern face of the vast Tibetan highlands
which are bounded on the south by the Himalaya. The Pamir highlands
between the base of the Tian-shan mountains and the eastern buttresses
of the Hindu Kush unite these two great divides, enclosing the Gobi
depression on the west; and they would again be united on the east but
for the transverse valley of the Amur, which parts the Khingan
mountains from the Yablonoi system to the east of Lake Baikal.

If we consider the whole continent to be divided into three sections,
viz. a northern section with an average altitude of less than 5000 ft.
above sea, where all the main rivers flow northward to the
Mediterranean, the Arctic Sea, or the Caspian; a central section of
depression, where the drainage is lost in swamps or _hamuns_, and of
which the average level probably does not exceed 2000 ft. above sea;
and a southern section divided between highly elevated table-lands
from 15,000 to 16,000 ft. in altitude, and lowlands of the Arabian,
Indian, Siamese and Chinese peninsulas, with an ocean outlet for its
drainage; we find that there is only one direct connexion between
northern and southern sections which involves no mountain passes, and
no formidable barrier of altitudes. That one is afforded by the narrow
valley of the Hari Rud to the west of Herat. From the Caspian to
Karachi it is possible to pass without encountering any orographic
obstacle greater than the divide which separates the valley of the
Hari Rud from the Helmund _hamun_ basin, which may be represented by
an altitude of about 4000 ft. above sea-level. This fact possesses
great significance in connexion with the development of Asiatic
railways.

Hydrography.

If we examine the hydrographic basins of the three divisions of Asia
thus indicated we find that the northern division, including the
drainage falling into the Arctic Sea, the Aralo-Caspian depression, or
the Mediterranean, embraces an area of about 6,394,500 sq. m., as
follows:--

Sq. m.
Area of Arctic river basins 4,367,000
" Aralo-Caspian basin 1,759,000
" Mediterranean 268,500
---------
Total 6,394,500

The southern division is nearly equal in extent--

Sq. m.
Pacific drainage 3,641,000
Indian Ocean 2,873,000
---------
Total 6,514,000

The interior or inland basins, including the lacustrine regions south
of the Arctic watershed, the Gobi depression, Tibetan plateau, the
Iranian (or Perso-Afghan) uplands, the Syro-Arabian inland basin, and
that of Asia Minor, amount to 3,141,500 sq. m. or about half the
extent of the other two.

By far the largest Asiatic river basin is that of the Ob, which
exceeds 1,000,000 sq. m. in extent. On the east and south the Amur
embraces no less than 776,000 sq. m., the Yang-tsze-kiang including
685,000, the Ganges 409,500, and the Indus 370,000 sq. m.[1]

The lakes of Asia are innumerable, and vary in size from an inland sea
(such as Lakes Baikal and Balkash) to a highland loch, or the
indefinitely extended swamps of Persia. Many of them are at high
elevations (Lake Victoria, 13,400 ft., being probably the most
elevated), and are undoubted vestiges of an ancient period of
glaciation. Such lakes, as a rule, show indications of a gradual
decrease in size. Others are relics of an earlier geological period,
when land areas recently upheaved from the sea were spread at low
levels with alternate inundations of salt and fresh water. Of these
Lop Nor and the Helmund _hamuns_ are typical. Such lakes (in common
with all the plateau _hamuns_ of south-west Baluchistan and Persia)
change their form and extent from season to season, and many of them
are impregnated with saline deposits from the underlying strata. The
_kavirs_, or salt depressions, of the Persian desert are more
frequently widespread deposits of mud and salt than water-covered
areas.

Political divisions.

Although for the purposes of geographical nomenclature, boundaries
formed by a coast-line--that is, by depressions of the earth's solid
crust _below_ the ocean level--are most easily recognized and are of
special convenience; and although such boundaries, from following
lines on which the continuity of the land is interrupted, often
necessarily indicate important differences in the conditions of
adjoining countries, and of their political and physical relations,
yet variations of the elevation of the surface _above_ the sea-level
frequently produce effects not less marked. The changes of temperature
and climate caused by difference of elevation are quite comparable in
their magnitude and effect on all organized creatures with those due
to differences of latitude; and the relative position of the high and
low lands on the earth's surface, by modifying the direction of the
winds, the fall of rain, and other atmospheric phenomena, produce
effects in no sense less important than those due to the relative
distribution of the land and sea. Hence the study of the mountain
ranges of a continent is, for a proper apprehension of its physical
conditions and characteristics, as essential as the examination of its
extent and position in relation to the equator and poles, and the
configuration of its coasts.

Himalayan boundary.

From such causes the physical conditions of a large part of Asia, and
the history of its population, have been very greatly influenced by
the occurrence of the mass of mountain above described, which includes
the Himalaya and the whole elevated area having true physical
connexion with that range, and occupies an area about 2000 m. in
length and varying from 100 to 500 m. in width, between 65 deg. and
100 deg. east and between 28 deg. and 35 deg. north. These mountains,
which include the highest peaks in the world, rise, along their entire
length, far above the line of perpetual snow, and few of the passes
across the main ridges are at a less altitude than 15,000 or 16,000
ft. above the sea. Peaks of 20,000 ft. abound along the whole chain,
and the points that exceed that elevation are numerous. A mountain
range such as this, attaining altitudes at which vegetable life
ceases, and the support of animal life is extremely difficult,
constitutes an almost impassable barrier against the spread of all
forms of living creatures. The mountain mass, moreover, is not less
important in causing a complete separation between the atmospheric
conditions on its opposite flanks, by reason of the extent to which it
penetrates that stratum of the atmosphere which is in contact with the
earth's surface and is effective in determining climate. The highest
summits create serious obstructions to the movements of nearly
three-fourths of the mass of the air resting on this part of the
earth, and of nearly the whole of the moisture it contains; the
average height of the entire chain is such as to make it an almost
absolute barrier to one-half of the air and three-fourths of the
moisture; while the lower ranges also produce important atmospheric
effects, one-fourth of the air and one-half of the watery vapour it
carries with it lying below 9000 ft.

This great mass of mountain, constituting as it does a complete
natural line of division across a large part of the continent, will
form a convenient basis from which to work, in proceeding, as will now
be done, to give a general view of the principal countries contained
in Asia.

Tibet.

The summit of the great mountain mass is occupied by Tibet, a country
known by its inhabitants under the name of _Bod_ or _Bodyul_. Tibet is
a rugged table-land, narrow as compared with its length, broken up by
a succession of mountain ranges, which follow as a rule the direction
of the length of the table-land, and commonly rise into the regions of
perpetual snow; between the flanks of these lie valleys, closely
hemmed in, usually narrow, having a very moderate inclination, but at
intervals opening out into wide plains, and occupied either by rivers,
or frequently by lakes from which there is no outflow and the waters
of which are salt. The eastern termination of Tibet is in the line of
snowy mountains which flanks China on the west, between the 27th and
35th parallels of latitude, and about 103 deg. east. On the west the
table-land is prolonged beyond the political limits of Tibet, though
with much the same physical features, to about 70 deg. east, beyond
which it terminates; and the ranges which are covered with perpetual
snow as far west as Samarkand, thence rapidly diminish in height, and
terminate in low hills north of Bokhara.

The mean elevation of Tibet may be taken as 15,000 ft. above the sea.
The broad mountainous slope by which it is connected with the lower
levels of Hindostan contains the ranges known as the Himalaya; the
name Kuen-lun is generally applied to the northern slope that descends
to the central plains of the Gobi, though these mountains are not
locally known under those names, Kuen-lun being apparently a Chinese
designation.

The extreme rigour of the climate of Tibet, which combines great cold
with great drought, makes the country essentially very poor, and the
chief portion of it little better than desert. The vegetation is
everywhere most scanty, and scarcely anything deserving the name of a
tree is to be found unless in the more sheltered spots, and then
artificially planted. The population in the lower and warmer valleys
live in houses, and follow agriculture; in the higher regions they are
nomadic shepherds, thinly scattered over a large area.

China.

China lies between the eastern flank of the Tibetan plateau and the
North Pacific, having its northern and southern limits about on 40
deg. and 20 deg. N. respectively. The country, though generally broken
up with mountains of moderate elevation, possesses none of very great
importance apart from those of its western border. It is well watered,
populous, and, as a rule, highly cultivated, fertile, and well wooded;
the climate is analogous to that of southern Europe, with hot summers,
and winters everywhere cold and in the north decidedly severe.

Indo-Chinese region.

From the eastern extremity of the Tibetan mountains, between the 95th
and 100th meridians, high ranges extend from about 35 deg. N. in a
southerly direction, which, spreading outwards as they go south, reach
the sea at various points in Cochin-China, the Malay peninsula, and
the east flank of Bengal. Between these ranges, which are probably
permanently snowy to about 27 deg. N., flow the great rivers of the
Indo-Chinese peninsula, the Mekong, the Menam, the Salween, and the
Irrawaddy, the valleys of which form the main portions of the states
of Cochin-China (including Tongking and Cambodia), of Siam (including
Laos) and of Burma. The people of Cochin-China are called Anam; it is
probably from a corruption of their name for the capital of Tongking,
Kechao, that the Portuguese Cochin has been derived. All these
countries are well watered, populous and fertile, with a climate very
similar to that of eastern Bengal. The geography of the region in
which the mountains of Cochin-China and Siam join Tibet is still
imperfectly known, but there is no ground left for doubting that the
great river of eastern Tibet, the Tsanpo, supplies the main stream of
the Brahmaputra. The two great rivers of China, the Hwang-ho and the
Yang-tsze-kiang take their rise from the eastern face of Tibet, the
former from the north-east angle, the latter from the south-east. The
main stream of this last is called Dichu in Tibet, and its chief
feeder is the Ya-lung-kiang, which rises not far from the Hwang-ho,
and is considered the territorial boundary between China and Tibet.

British India.

British India comprises approximately the area between the 95th and
70th meridians, and between the Tibetan table-land and the Indian
Ocean. The Indian peninsula from 25 deg. N. southwards is a
table-land, having its greatest elevation on the west, where the
highest points rise to over 8000 ft., though the ordinary altitude of
the higher hills hardly exceeds 4000 ft.; the general level of the
table-land lies between 3000 ft. as a maximum and 1000 ft.

From the delta of the Ganges and Brahmaputra on the east to that of
the Indus on the west, and intervening between the table-land of the
peninsula and the foot of the Himalayan slope of the Tibetan plateau,
lies the great plain of northern India, which rises at its highest
point to about 1000 ft., and includes altogether, with its
prolongation up the valley of Assam, an area of about 500,000 sq. m.,
comprising the richest, the most populous and most civilized districts
of India. The great plain extends, with an almost unbroken surface,
from the most western to the most eastern extremity of British India,
and is composed of deposits so finely comminuted, that it is no
exaggeration to say that it is possible to go from the Bay of Bengal
up the Ganges, through the Punjab, and down the Indus again to the
sea, over a distance of 2000 m. and more, without finding a pebble,
however small.

The great rivers of northern India--the Ganges, the Brahmaputra and
the Indus--all derive their waters from the Tibetan mountain mass; and
it is a remarkable circumstance that the northern water-parting of
India should lie to the north of the Himalaya in the regions of
central Tibet.

The population of India is very large, some of its districts being
among the most densely peopled in the world. The country is generally
well cleared, and forests are, as a rule, found only along the flanks
of the mountains, where the fall of rain is most abundant. The more
open parts are highly cultivated, and large cities abound. The climate
is generally such as to secure the population the necessaries of life
without severe labour; the extremes of heat and drought are such as to
render the land unsuitable for pasture, and the people everywhere
subsist by cultivation of the soil or commerce, and live in settled
villages or towns.

The island of Ceylon is distinguished from the neighbouring parts of
British India by little more than its separate administration and the
Buddhistic religion of its population. The highest point in Ceylon
rises to about 9000 ft. above the sea, and the mountain slopes are
densely covered with forest. The lower levels are in climate and
cultivation quite similar to the regions in the same latitude on the
Malay peninsula.

Of the islands in the Bay of Bengal the Nicobar and Andaman groups are
alone worth notice. They are placed on a line joining the north end of
Sumatra and Cape Negrais, the south-western extremity of Burma. They
possibly owe their existence to the volcanic agencies which are known
to extend from Sumatra across this part of the Indian Ocean.

The Laccadives and Maldives are groups of small coral islands,
situated along the 73rd meridian at no great distance from the
Indian peninsula on which they have a political dependency.

The Nearer East.

The portion of Asia west of British India excluding Arabia and Syria
forms another extensive plateau covering an area as large as that of
Tibet though at a much lower altitude. Its southern border runs along
the Arabian Sea, the Persian Gulf, the Tigris and thence westward to
the north-east angle of the Levant, on the north the high land follows
nearly 36 deg. N. to the southern shore of the Caspian and thence to
the Black Sea and Sea of Marmora. Afghanistan, Baluchistan, Iran or
Persia, Armenia and the provinces of Asia Minor occupy this high
region with which they are nearly conterminous. The eastern flank of
this table-land follows a line of hills drawn a short distance from
the Indus between the mouth of that river and the Himalaya, about on
the 72nd meridian, these hills do not generally exceed 4000 or 5000
ft. in elevation but a few of the summits reach 10,000 ft. or more.
The southern and south western face follows the coast closely up the
Persian Gulf from the mouth of the Indus, and is formed farther west
by the mountain scarp, which, rising in many points to 10,000 ft.
flanks the Tigris and the Mesopotamian plains, and extends along
Kurdistan and Armenia nearly to the 40th meridian, beyond which it
turns along the Taurus range, and the north eastern angle of the
Mediterranean. The north eastern portion of the Afghan table-land
abuts on the Himalaya and Tibet, with which it forms a continuous mass
of mountain between the 71st and 72nd meridians and 34 deg. and 36
deg. N. From the point of intersection of the 71st meridian with the
36th parallel of latitude, an unbroken range of mountain stretches on
one side towards the north east, up to the crest of the northern slope
of the Tibetan plateau, and on the other nearly due west as far as the
Caspian. The north eastern portion of this range is of great altitude,
and separates the headwaters of the Oxus, which run off to the Aral
Sea, from those of the Indus and its Kabul tributary, which, uniting
below Peshawar are thence discharged southward into the Arabian Sea.
The western part of the range, which received the name of Paropamisus
Mons from the ancients, diminishes in height west of the 65th meridian
and constitutes the northern face of the Afghan and Persian plateau
rising abruptly from the plains of the Turkoman desert which lies
between the Oxus and the Caspian. These mountains at some points
attain a height of 10,000 or 12,000 ft. Along the south coast of the
Caspian this line of elevation is prolonged as the Elburz range (not
to be confused with the Elburz of the Caucasus), and has its
culminating point in Demavend, which rises to 19,400 ft. above the sea
thence it extends to the north west to Ararat, which rises to upwards
of 17,000 ft. from the vicinity of which the Euphrates flows off to
the south west across the high lands of Armenia. Below the north east
declivity of this range lies Georgia, on the other side of which
province rises the Caucasus, the boundary of Asia and Europe between
the Caspian and Black Seas, the highest points of which reach an
elevation of nearly 19,000 ft. West of Ararat high hills extend along
the Black Sea between which and the Taurus range lies the plateau of
Asia Minor reaching to the Aegean Sea, the mountains along the Black
Sea, on which are the Olympus and Ida of the ancients rise to 6000 or
7000 ft., the Taurus is more lofty--reaching 8000 and 10,000 ft.--both
ranges decline in altitude as they approach the Mediterranean.

This great plateau extending from the Mediterranean to the Indus has a
length of about 2500 m. from east to west, and a breadth of upwards of
600 m. on the west and nowhere of less than 250 m. It lies generally
at altitudes between 2000 ft. and 8000 ft. above the sea level. Viewed
as a whole the eastern half of this region, comprising Persia,
Afghanistan and Baluchistan, is poor and unproductive. The climate is
very severe in the winter and extremely hot in summer. The rainfall is
very scanty, and running waters are hardly known excepting among the
mountains which form the scarps of the elevated country. The
population is sparse, frequently nomadic, and addicted to plunder,
progress in the arts and habits of civilization is small. The western
part of the area falls within the Turkish empire. Its climate is less
hot and and its natural productiveness much greater and its population
more settled and on the whole more advanced.

Arabia.

The peninsula of Arabia with Syria, its continuation to the
north-west, has some of the characteristics of the hottest and driest
parts Persia and Baluchistan. Excepting the northern part of this
tract which is conterminous with the plain of Mesopotamia (which at
its highest point reaches an elevation of about 700 ft. above the sea)
the country is covered with low mountains, rising to 3000 or 4000 ft.
in altitude having among them narrow valleys in which the vegetation
is scanty with exceptional regions of greater fertility in the
neighbourhood of the coasts where the rainfall is greatest. In
northern Syria the mountains of Lebanon rise to about 10,000 ft. and
with a more copious water supply the country becomes more productive.
The whole tract, excepting south eastern Arabia is nominally subject
to Turkey but the people are to no small extent practically
independent living a nomadic pastoral and freebooting life under petty
chiefs in the more arid districts, but settled in towns in the more
fertile tracts where agriculture becomes more profitable and external
commerce is established.

Trans-Caspian region and central Asia.

The area between the northern border of the Persian high lands and the
Caspian and Aral Seas is a nearly desert low lying plain, extending to
the foot of the north-western extremity of the great Tibeto-Himalayan
mountains and prolonged eastward up the valleys of the Oxus (Amu
Darya) and Jaxartes (Syr-Darya), and northward across the country of
the Kirghiz to the south western border of Siberia. It includes
Bokhara, Khiva and Turkestan proper in which the Uzbeg Turks are
dominant, and for the most part is inhabited by nomadic tribes, who
are marauders, enjoying the reputation of being the worst among a race
of professed robbers. The tribes to the north, subject to Russia, are
naturally more peaceable, and have been brought into some degree of
discipline. In this tract the rainfall is nowhere sufficient for the
purposes of agriculture, which is only possible by help of irrigation,
and the fixed population (which contains a non-Turkish element) is
comparatively small, and restricted to the towns and the districts
near the rivers.

The north-western extremity of the elevated Tibeto-Himalayan mountain
plateau is situated about on 73 deg. E. and 39 deg. N. This region is
known as Pamir, it has all the characteristics of the highest regions
of Tibet, and so far fitly receives the Russian designation of steppe,
but it seems to have no special peculiarities, and the reason of its
having been so long regarded as a geographical enigma is not obvious.
From it the Oxus, or Amu, flows off to the west, and the Jaxartes, or
Syr, to the north, through the Turki state of Khokand, while to the
east the waters run down past Kashgar to the central desert of the
Gobi, uniting with the streams from the northern slope of the Tibetan
plateau that traverse the principalities of Yarkand and Khotan, which
are also Turki. Here the Tibetan mountains unite with the line of
elevation which stretches across the continent from the Pacific, and
which separates Siberia from the region commonly spoken of under the
name of central Asia.

Manchuria.

A range of mountains, called Stanovor, rising to heights of 4000 or
5000 ft., follows the southern coast of the eastern extremity of Asia
from Kamchatka to the borders of Manchuria, as far as the 135th
meridian, in lat. 55 deg. N. Thence the Yablonoi range, continuing in
the same direction, divides the waters of the river Lena, which flows
through Siberia into the Arctic Sea, from those of the river Amur,
which falls into the North Pacific, the basin of this river, with its
affluents, constitutes Manchuria. From the north of Manchuria the
Khingan range stretches southward to the Chinese frontier near Peking,
east of which the drainage falls into the Amur and the Yellow Sea,
while to the west is an almost rainless region, the inclination of
which is towards the central area of the continent, Mongolia.

Mongolia.

From the western end of the Yablonoi range, on the 115th meridian, a
mountainous belt extends along a somewhat irregular line to the
extremity of Pamir, known under various names in its different parts,
and broken up into several branches, enclosing among them many
isolated drainage areas, from which there is no outflow, and within
which numerous lakes are formed. The most important of these ranges is
the Tian-shan or Celestial Mountains, which form the northern boundary
of the Gobi desert, they lie between 40 deg. and 43 deg. N., and
between 75 deg. and 95 deg. E., and some of the summits are said to
exceed 20,000 ft. in altitude, along the foot of this range are the
principal cultivated districts of central Asia, and here too are
situated the few towns which have sprung up in this barren and thinly
peopled region. Next may be named the Ala-tau, on the prolongation of
the Tian-shan, flanking the Syr on the north, and rising to 14,000 or
15,000 ft. It forms the barrier between the Issyk-kul and Balkash
lakes, the elevation of which is about 5000 ft. Last is the Altai,
near the 50th parallel, rising to 10,000 or 12,000 ft., which
separates the waters of the great rivers of western Siberia from those
that collect into the lakes of north-west Mongolia, Dzungaria and
Kalka. A line of elevation is continued west of the Altai to the Ural
Mountains, not rising to considerable altitudes; this divides the
drainage of south-west Siberia from the great plains lying north east
of the Aral Sea.

The central area bounded on the north and north-west by the Yablonoi
Mountains and their western extension in the Tian-shan, on the south
by the northern face of the Tibetan plateau and on the east by the
Khingan range before alluded to, forms the great desert of central
Asia, known as the Gobi. Its eastern part is nearly conterminous with
south Mongolia, its western forms Chinese or eastern Turkestan. It
appears likely that no part of this great central Asiatic desert is
less than 2000 ft. above the sea level. The elevation of the plain
about Kashgar and Yarkand is from 4000 to 6000 ft. The more northern
parts of Mongolia are between 4000 and 6000 ft., and no portion of the
route across the desert between the Chinese frontier and Kiakhta is
below 3000 ft. The precise positions of the mountain ridges that
traverse this central area are not properly known, their elevation is
everywhere considerable, and many points are known to exceed 10,000 or
12,000 ft.

In Mongolia the population is essentially nomadic, its wealth
consisting in herds of horned cattle, sheep, horses and camels. The
Turki tribes, occupying western Mongolia, are among the least
civilized of human beings, and it is chiefly to their extreme
barbarity and cruelty that our ignorance of central Asia is due. The
climate is very severe, with great extremes of heat and cold. The
drought is very great, rain falls rarely and in small quantities. The
surface is for the most part a hard stony desert, areas of blown sand
occurring but exceptionally. There are few towns or settled villages,
except along the slopes of the higher mountains, on which the rain
falls more abundantly, or the melting snow supplies streams for
irrigation. It is only in such situations that cultivated lands are
found, and beyond them trees are hardly to be seen.

Siberia.

The portion of Asia which lies between the Arctic Ocean and the
mountainous belt bounding Manchuria, Mongolia and Turkestan on the
north is Siberia. It includes an immense high and broken plateau which
spreads from south-west to north-east, losing in width and altitude as
it advances north-east. It is fringed on either side by high border
ridges, which subside on the north-west into a stretch of high plains,
1500 to 2000 ft. high, finally dropping to lowlands a few hundred feet
above sea-level. The extremes of heat and cold are very great. The
rainfall, though not heavy, is sufficient to maintain such vegetation
as is compatible with the conditions of temperature, and the surface
is often swampy or peaty. The mountain-sides are commonly clothed with
pine forests, and the plains with grasses or shrubs. The population is
very scanty; the cultivated tracts are comparatively small in extent
and restricted to the more settled districts. The towns are entirely
Russian. The indigenous races are nomadic Mongols, of a peaceful
character, but in a very backward state of civilization. The Ural
Mountains do not exceed 2000 or 3000 ft. in average altitude, the
highest summits not exceeding 6000 ft., and one of the passes being as
low as 1400 ft. In the southern half of the range are the chief mining
districts of Russia. The Ob, Yenisei and Lena, which traverse Siberia,
are among the largest rivers in the world.

Malay Archipelago.

The southern group of the Malay Archipelago, from Sumatra to Java and
Timor, extends in the arc of a circle between 95 deg. and 127 deg. E.,
and from 5 deg. to 10 deg. S. The central part of the group is a
volcanic region, many of the volcanoes being still active, the summits
frequently rising to 10,000 ft. or more.