hardly any roads. The great line of communication is from Perm (in Europe) by Tobolsk to Irkutsk close to Lake Baikal; thence one route goes to Kiakhta, the border town of China (the Chinese half of the town is called Maimatchin): another route goes to the Upper Amoor. A large part of the route between Perm and Irkutsk is by river, the upper portions of the Yenisei and Obi forming a good system of inland navigation. Lake Baikal is crossed on the ice. By this route Russia gets tea, though the distance from the Chinese tea districts to St. Petersburg must be more than 7,000 miles.

402. RACES OF MEN. The inhabitants of Siberia are various Mongolian, mostly nomad tribes, from the Tartar to the Esquimaux. But the Russians having conquered Siberia nearly 200 years ago, there are now many Russian inhabitants. Both political and other criminals have been banished to Siberia, and the Sclavonic population is considerable in the less barbarous portions of the country. The religion of most of the Tartar races is Mahometan, of the Esquimaux-like Samoeides and others, Pagan; of the races between, some are imperfect Mahometans, some are imperfect Greek Christians.

403. ANIMALS. Siberia is celebrated for supplying furs-sable, ermine, and many others—to the European market. The white bear is in the north, the black bear general. The tiger ranges into Amoorland, and is said sometimes to feed on the rain-deer, which with the elk is common in Siberia. Most northern European animals are found in Siberia, as the wolf, glutton, fox.

The most remarkable animal of Siberia is the mammoth, or Siberian elephant. These are preserved in many cases with their flesh in countless multitudes in the frozen soil and ice of North-east Siberia, so that from their tusks 40,000 lbs. annually of fossil ivory is sent to Europe. These animals are too numerous to be a stray herd overwhelmed accidentally by Siberian cold; it is clear that they lived here for ages: their coat is covered with hair and wool, and their stomachs contain the leaves of the Siberian fir-trees on which they

fed. The carcase of a rhinoceros has also been dug out of this ever-frozen soil.

404. PLANTS. The trees of Siberia are mainly forests of firs, but the birch, alder, and willow also endure the Siberian winter, and extend nearly to lat. 60°.

Wheat is cultivated in the extreme south about Irkutsk, but barley and rye are more common crops.

405. MINERALS. The Oural mountains are rich in metals gold, silver, malachite, are produced; the produce of copper and iron is, however, more valuable. There is another rich mineral area on the Upper Amoor, where quicksilver, tin, zinc, iron and lead in the form of graphite, are obtained. The Oural mines are also celebrated for gemsemerald, amethyst, topaz, &c.

406. TOWNS. Irkutsk, population 28,000, is the largest town in Siberia, and is reckoned the capital of East Siberia. Tobolsk, population 18,000, is the capital of West Siberia.

Sect. XXI. TURKEY (in Asia).

407. EXTENT. Turkey in Asia is here taken to comprise the territory of the Sultan in Asia; a vast area, thrice as large as France, but containing only half the population of France.

408. BOUNDARIES. On the West the Mediterranean, the Levant, the Hellespont, the Sea of Marmora, and the Bosphorus; on the North, the Black Sea; on the East, a line from Batoum on the Black Sea to Mount Ararat, and from Ararat to the junction of the Tigris and Euphrates, this latter line being nearly the eastern watershed of the Tigris. On the South the boundary is the Arabian Desert, along a line not fixed either politically or by geographers.

409. ATTACHED ISLANDS. Cyprus, Rhodes, and many islands of the Levant Archipelago, among which Samos, Mytilene, Chios, and others are celebrated in ancient history, but not now important.

410. CLIMATE. The climate is generally hot and dry,

partaking of the nature of the desert climate of Western Asia. A large area between Syria and the Euphrates is desert, and there are other considerable tracts, in the interior of Asia Minor, desert in character.

In so large a country there is a great range of climate, and that range is increased by the difference in elevations. Mesopotamia is excessively hot in summer, and Syria much burnt up; while the climate of the coast of the Black Sea is warm-temperate, and that of the Armenian highlands is very severe in winter with prolonged snows.

411. MOUNTAINS AND PLAINS. The Taurus range of mountains runs parallel with the south coast of Asia Minor, and at no great distance from it, and is the principal watershed of Asia Minor. This watershed may be continued so as to form the northern boundary of the basin of the Euphrates till it reaches Mount Ararat. From the Taurus range the country slopes generally northwards gradually, so that the interior of Asia Minor is a plateau, which contains many traces of volcanic action. The steep side of Taurus is towards the south.

Ararat, height 16,964 feet, is the culminating point of the Armenian highlands; considerable areas of these are 5,000-6,000 feet above sea-level.

The Lebanon range, which reaches 10,061 feet above the sea, is the highest of the series of ranges which lie near the Mediterranean in Syria.

There is much undulating and hilly country in the north of Mesopotamia, the ancient Assyria, where the country rises gradually to the sources of the Tigris and Euphrates. Southern Mesopotamia (the ancient Babylonia) is wholly level, as is the whole of Asiatic Turkey westward thence to the mountainous regions of Syria.

412. RIVERS. The Euphrates, which rises near Erzeroum in Armenia, and forms the western boundary of Mesopotamia. Its total course is reckoned 1,600 miles, nearly wholly in Turkey.

The Tigris, whose sources are south of the headwaters of the Euphrates, and which flows by Mosul and Bagdad.

The Jordan, in Syria, which is remarkable for having much of its course below sea-level.

The Meander, in Asia Minor, though not the largest river of Asia Minor, is a stream of historic celebrity, which has given us the word "meander," to signify the winding course of a river across a level plain.

413. LAKES. Lake Van is a large lake in Armenia, and has no outlet.

The Sea of Galilee is 653 feet below sea-level; the Jordan runs through it.

The Dead Sea is 1,316 feet below sea-level; its shores are the lowest known land.

414. COMMUNICATIONS. None, except two very short suburban railways at Smyrna. Over the larger part of Turkey in Asia the camel supplies the chief means of communication.

415. RACES OF MEN. A very large proportion of the inhabitants of Asiatic Turkey are Mahometans, and a large proportion are Turks or Mongolians (Kurds and other tribes) allied to the Turks. In the cities of the coast of Asia Minor and Syria, and in the islands, are many Greeks, who are Christians. Scarcely one-tenth of the population of Armenia consists of Armenians. The Armenian nation is (somewhat like the Jews) scattered over the earth as traders, at Rangoon, Calcutta, Bushire, Liverpool, and many other ports. Besides the above there are many Arabs (Caucasians of the Shemitic division) within the limits of Asiatic Turkey.

The Kurds are a pastoral people, belonging to the great `family of nomad tribes, which have occupied Central and Western Asia from the earliest dawn of history to the present day.

416. PLANTS. Asiatic Turkey contains some of the most fertile districts on the face of the globe, where almost all the plants desirable to man may be grown, and which have in past ages supported vast populations, but which now all lie in decay, poorly populated, miserably cultivated, after hundreds of years of Turkish rule.

M

The north of Asia Minor on the shores of the Black Sea is a warm-temperate beautifully-watered country. Wheat and the vine flourish. The hills are clothed with fine woods of oak and numerous other valuable timber-trees, while the ground is profusely covered with wild flowers.

Syria, though scorched up in summer, is still a most fertile country. Wheat, the vine, the orange, the fig, and the olive flourish as in ancient times.

Lower Mesopotamia is capable of supporting now, as in Babylonish times, an enormous population. It is all capable of irrigation, and able to produce a rice crop every year. Under a government that should be equal to protecting life and property, it should be as populous as the lower basin of the Yang-tse-kiang and Hoangho, or of the Ganges and Brahmapootra.

417. DIVISIONS. Turkey in Asia falls into four great natural divisions :

(1) Asia Minor, the country between the Mediterranean and the Black Sea.

(2) Armenia, the whole mountainous or high-land provinces in the north-east.

(3) Syria, the strip east of the Mediterranean.

(4) Mesopotamia, the country between the Tigris and Euphrates, together with the eastern basin of the Tigris. 418. TOWNS (with their populations) :

(1) Smyrna, population 150,000, a port and residence of many European merchants.

(2) Damascus, population 150,000, the capital of Syria: an oasis on the edge of the Arabian desert, due (as are all other oases) to the irrigation of a stream.

(3) Aleppo, population 75,000: has been desolated by earthquakes during the last fifty years: was formerly a larger place.

(4) Scutari, population 60,000: the suburb of Constantinople across the Bosphorus.

(5) Brusa, population 60,000: a place of trade a little inland from the sea of Marmora.

(6) Bagdad, population 60,000: on the Tigris, a place of