Directory_and_Chronicle_1850 — Page 596

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Topography of the Province of Kansuh.

sion, the words 真主阿羅訶。

Oct.

In Dr. Lockhart's copy, taken from the stone, the groundwork is black, the characters standing out in white relief. The dimensions of this black-ground, showing the size of the engraving, are sixty-six in- ches long, and thirty-four and one half inches broad. In the Latin ver- are rendered "veritas Dominus holooy ;” what the Nestorian Christians intended by these words is not very clear; if the first and second, Chin chú, were, like Tien chú, in- tended for Elohim, the remaining three might be considered as in ap- position. We are not aware that the Nestorians ever attempted to tran- slate the Bible, and we are left in doubt, therefore, whether they intend- ed Chin-chú and Aloak to stand in apposition or not. When we made the translation given in Vol. XIV., we supposed that Chin chú was to be regarded as the Tien chú, and Aloah as a transfer of the proper name Jehovah,

ART. VIII. Topography of the province of Kánsuh; its boundaries, mountains, lakes, rivers, divisions, cities, population, productions, historical notices, &c.

WHEN Du Halde compiled his geographical notices of China, this province formed part of Shensí, and was ruled by a deputy stationed at Lánchau fű, and the nomadic tribes within its borders were kept in subjection by garrisons at important points. Since that time, the in- crease of the population and the quiet of the region, has led to a division of the province, and the substitution of civil for military juris- diction, though the garrisons have not been withdrawn. The words

Kán Suk甘肅 mean Voluntary Respect, and are obtained by com-

bining the names of the two departments Kánchau and Suh near the termination of the Wall. Since the division, the limits of Kánsuh have been extended across the Desert of Gobi to include Barkoul and other towns lying in the valleys of the Tien-shán. Its extreme points extend from lats. 321⁄2° to 45° N., and longs. 85° to 106° E.; the out- line is irregular, not unlike an hourglass in form, the neck of which is at Kánchau fi. The longest line which can be drawn in the pro- vince, from lake Ayar in the nothwest to Pingliáng fú, is upwards of a thousand miles; in Kánchau fú at Yungcháng hien, between the R. Edsinei and the Kilien Mts., the breadth is hardly forty miles.