Directory_and_Chronicle_1845 — Page 675

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Mongolia.

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Mongolia is the first in order of the colonies, by which are meant those parts of the empire under the control of the Li-fan yeun, or Foreign Office. It comprises the regions lying between lats. 35° and 52o W. ́aud longs. 82° and 123° E. Its length is about 1700 miles, and 1000 miles its greatest breadth, inclosing an area of 1,400,000 square miles. The population is estimated at two millions. The chief mountains of this region are, 1.' The Altai, or Kin shán and its various subordinate chains, extending eastward under the names of Tángnú Khangai, and Kentel 肯特 as far as the banks of the Sagalien, where the range is de- flected northward and joins the Yablonoi-khrebet. 2. The Alí Shán and In Shán ranges, which commence in lat. 42° N.

and long. 107° E., and curve N. N. E. and northward as far as the Sagalien in lat. 53° N., where they join the Altai.

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The rivers of Mongolia are numerous chiefly in the north, be- longing to the basins either of the Irtish or Sagalien. Of the former are the Selenga, 色楞格 Orkhon 鄂爾坤 and Tola土拉

which unite and flow into lake Baikal. The Kerlon and Onou flow northeast through Mongolia. In the south are the Sira-muren and its branches which unite in the Liáu river, besides several rivers in the region of Koko Nor. The chief lakes south of the desert are the Koko Noror Azure Sea, and the Oling and Dzaring near the sources of the Yellow River. Cobdo, in the north-west, abounds in lakes, the principal being the Upsa Nor and Altai Nor on the east, Alak Nor on the south, and ĺki-aral, near which lies the town of Cobdo.

The principal divisions of Mongolia are four; viz. 1. ·Inner Mon- golia, lying between the Wall and south of the Desert. 2. Outer Mon- golia, between the Desert and the Altai mountains, and reaching from the Inner Hingngán to the Tienshán. 3. The country about Koko Nor, between Kansuh, Sz'chuen aud Tibet. and 4. The de- pendencies of Uliasutai, lying northwest of the Kalkas khanates. The whole have been included under the name of Tartary. The three tribes the Kalkas, the Tsakhars and Sounites, now constitute the great body of Mongols under Chinese rule.

The divisions of Inner Mongolia are not marked with any distincts ness, the nomads which inhabit it wandering about with their flocks for pasturage within the limits prescribed by the Chinese. The whole

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