Page:Travels and Researches of Alexander von Humboldt.djvu/400

 HIMALAYA SYSTEM. 385

According to the most recent accounts, the plain of CHAPTER Khorasan, which runs in the direction of Herat, and *%*VUL limits the Hindoo-kho to the north, appears to be rather a continuation of the Tsung-ling, or the Mountains of The Tsung- Onions, as this chain is somewhat quaintly distinguished, lines, and of the whole system of Kwan-lun to the west. than a prolongation of the Himalayas as has been commonly supposed. From the Tsung-ling the Kwan-lun, or Koul- koun range, runs from west to east towards the sources of the Hoang-ho or Yellow River, and penetrates with its snowy summits intu Shen-see, a province of China.

Nearly in the meridian of these springs rises the great

mass of mountains on the lake Khoukhou-noor, resting Mountains to the north upon the snowy chain of the Nan-shan or Yieethon. Ki-leen-shan, which also runs from west to east. Be- noor. tween Nan-shan and Thian Chan, the heights of Tangout

limit the margin of the upper desert of Cobi or Shamo,

which is prolonged from south-west to north-east. The

latitude of the central part of the Kwan-lung range is

35° 30’.

The Himalaya system separates the valleys of Cash- Himalaya mere and Nepaul from Bootan and Thibet. To the west ia it rises in the mountain Javaher toan elevation of 25,746 feet, and to the east in Dhwalagiri to 27,737 feet above the level of the sea. Its general direction is from north- west to south-east, and thus it is not at all parallel to the Kwan-lun range, to which it approaches so near in the meridian of Attok and Jellalabad that they seem to form the same mass of mountains. Following the Ha- Fastern malaya range eastward, we find it bordering Assam on aa the north, containing the sources of the Brahmapoutra, passing through the northern part of Ava, and penetrat- ing into Yun-nan, a province of China, to the west of Yong-tchang. It there exhibits pointed and snow-clad summits. It bends abruptly to the north-east, on the confines of Hou-quang, Kiang-see, and Fo-kien, and ad- vances its snowy peaks towards the ocean ; the island of Formosa, the mountains of which are in like manner