THE CONTINENT OF ASIA.

the boundaries of this continent: some divided the whole world into only two parts-Europe and Asia-and they were not agreed to which of these two Africa belonged; those who recognized three divisions, differed again in placing the boundary between Asia and Africa either on the west of Egypt, or along the Nile, or at the Isthmus of Suez and the Red sea; and the last opinion gra

Asia was bounded by the River Don, the Sea of Azof, the Black Sea, the Sea of Marmora, and the Archepelago. The southern part was supposed to extend much farther east than it really does, (about 60° of longitude too much, according to Ptolemy.) while to the north and north-eastern parts, which were quite unknown, much too small an extent was assigned.

"THE CRADLE OF MANKIND" is a term which nearly all modern geographers apply to this greatest portion of the globe; and as we are rather prone to follow this expressive idea, which seems to imply that the giant world of our day was yet in its infancy when Asia had reached its mighty maturity, we are willing to incur the charge of "borrowing the thunder" of those who have preceded us. Although unacquainted with its ex-dually prevailed: so that, on the side of Europe, treme northern and eastern limits, the ancients appear to have supposed that its shores were washed by three different oceans, and that its westerly boundary was the largest known inland sca* -the Caspian; the true position of this last, however, was evidently unknown to Strabo and Ptolemy; for the former believed it to communicate with the Northern Ocean, and the latter in his map placed its length from E. to W., instead of from N. to S. All the accurate knowledge of the Greeks and Romans respecting Asia was confined to the countries which slope down southward from the great mountain chain formed by the Caucasus and its prolongation beyond the Caspian to the Himalayas of the elevated steppes between these mountains and the central range of the Altai, (from which the northern regions of Siberia again slope down to the Arctic Ocean,) they only knew that they were inhabited by nomadic tribes, except the country directly north of Ariana, where the Persian empire had extended beyond the mountain chain, and where the Greek kingdom of Bactria had been subsequently established.

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Boundaries.-There were great differences of opinion among the geographers of antiquity as to * See maps of Ptolemy and Eratostlines.

Division. The most general division was into two parts, which were different at different times, and known by different names; but we shall only notice the one adopted about the fourth century of our era, which was that of Asia Major and Asia Minor. The first was that part of the continent east of the Don, the Black Sea, an imaginary line from the last at Frebizond to the Gulf of Issus, and the Mediterranean; and included the countries of Sarmatia, Asiatica, with all the Scythian tribes to the east, Colchis, Iberia, Albania, Armenia, Syria, Arabia, Babylonia, Mesopotamia, Assyria, Media, Susiana, Persis, Ariana, Hyreania Margiana, Bactriana, Sogdiana, India, and the land of the Sina and Serica. The second comprises the peninsula on the extreme west of Asia, bounded by the Black Sea, the Archipelago, and the Mediterranean, on the north, west and south;

and on the east by the mountains west of the upper course of the Euphrates. It was, for the most part, a fertile country, intersected with mountains and rivers, abounding in minerals, possessing excellent harbors, and peopled from the earliest known period by a variety of tribes from Asia and Europe. It comprised Mysia, Lydia, and Caria on the west; Lycia, Pamphylia, and Cilicia on the south; Bithynia, Paphlagonia, and Pontus on the north; and Phrygia, Pisidia, Galatia, and Cappadocia in the centre.

substances which communicate to these classes of animals the power of resisting the fiercest colds of the north, become, with little preparation, eminently useful and ornamental to man; the midnight gloom is enlivened, and the pomp of kings derives one of its most splendid decorations from commodities furnished by the shivering hunter of the polar desert. Siberia may be divided into two great regions, Western Siberia and Eastern Siberia. Western Siberia includes the governments of Tobolsk, Tomsk, and Yeniseisk, and the province of Omsk; the Eastern includes the government of Irkoutsk, the province of Yakutsk, the districts of Okotsk and Kamschatka, and the countries of the Kirghisses and the Tchutchi. And, although the intentions of the general government are good, it is inevitable that, in the distant establishments, opportunity must be given both for embezzlement and oppression. "God is high, and the emperor far off,” is said to be a maxim extensively acted on.

Of the three great belts into which Asia is divided, and with which the geographic distribution of its animals has been observed to correspond, SIBERIA, (Asiatic Russia,) constitutes the third and most northerly. Its features are peculiar to itself, and, like those of other portions of this continent, on a gigantic scale. As those of the south include the most extensive and populous empires in the world, and the middle tracts the widest range of pastoral table land, so the northern regions of Asia present an almost unbounded expanse of frozen desert. Some of the plains, indeed, of its southern border are covered with deep and rich pasture, and, under a more careful tendence than they have yet received, might become the seat of populous kingdoms. But as we proceed to its northern boundaries and the bleak shores of the occean, human life, with the means of supporting it, becomes more and more deficient. Even here, however, that beneficent contrivance which presides over nature has provided for the support of a profusion of animals. That severity of the cold which would otherwise be fatal, is guarded against in some by a thick coat of fat and unctuous sub-country is remarkable for having given birth to stances; in others, by skins and furs, much richer, softer, and more beautiful, than those which clothe the tenants of the more favored regions. The

Another feature of this grand division is found in the desert tract in the S. W. known as ARABIA. This wilderness forms a gulf, as it were, between two of the finest portions of the continent-Syria and Palestine, on the west; and the once great empires of Babylon and Assyria, now sunk into the Turkish pachalic of Bagdad, on the east. This tract of Arabia, continually narrowing northward, is finally closed at an angle, as it were, by the lofty mountain heads of the Euphrates and the Tigris. In all Arabia scarcely a river can be said to exist. Torrents alone are seen dashing down the rocks, and are absorbed in the sand. This

one of the most successful impostors the world has ever seen, in the person of Mohamet, who founded the faith that bears his name, A. D. 569.

TURKEY IN ASIA.

dan, after a total course of about 120 m. On its S. W. side is a mountain of rock-salt, called Hajr Posdoom, or Stone of Sidon, near the locality of the city whose destruction is recorded in the 19th chapter of Genesis. The chief rivers are the Euphrates and Tigris; the former has its sources near the Caspian, Black, and Mediterranean Seas. Its total course is about 1,780 m., and it is navigable for 1,195 m. On it, at about 300 m. from its mouth, are the ruins of Babylon. The Tigris has a total course of 1150 m., and falls into the Euphrates 120 m. from its mouth. It is navigable for rafts, during the high-water season, between Diyarbeker and Mosul.

TURKEY IN ASIA, the E. portion of the Turkish | divided by numerous mountain ridges. The Dead or Ottoman empire, over which the Sultan, resi-Sca, about 60 m. long and 9 broad, with a depth ding at the capital (Constantinople, in Europe), of 1,000 ft., receives the waters of the river Jorextends his rule, though in many places only nominal, is bounded N. by the Black Sea and Sea of Marmora, E. by Transcaucasia and Persia, S. by Arabia, and W. by the Mediterranean Sea and the Archipelago. There are several islands belonging to this country, the chief of which are Scio, Samos, Nicaria, Mytilene, Patmos, Cos, Rhodes, Scarpanto, and Cyprus, in the Mediterranean. Area, 668,441 sq. m. It is divided into Asia Minor, Armenia and Koordistan, Syria and Arabia, with a total population of about 16,050,000. The population consists of Arabs, Armenians, Druses, Greeks, Koords, Turks, Syrians, Chaldeans, and Toorkomans. The Mohammedan religion prevails; their number is estimated at nearly 13,000,000; of Greeks and Armenians, 2,360,000; of Roman Catholics, 640,000; and Jews, 100,000.

The surface of the country consists of two plateaus and a vast plain. The first plateau, extending from the Archipelago to the frontier lines of Persia and Transcaucasia, and embracing the N. part of the country, is elevated from 4,000 to 5,000 feet above the sea, and is traversed by the Taurus and Anti-Taurus Mts. The other plateau, occupying the W. part, and including Syria and Palestine (also the valley of the Jordan, which is 1,300 ft. below the level of the sea), is crossed by the Alma Dagh range, an arm of the Taurus Mts. East of this plateau, and S. of the first named, is the basin of the rivers Tigris and Euphrates, comprising the plain of Irak and Mesopotamia,

The government is administered by Pashas ap pointed by the Sultan, being dependent on his caprice; the extent of the divisions is unknown.

The soil and climate are various in the S. arc deserts; on the river banks and in the valleys of Lebanon it is fertile; in the vicinity of Mt. Taurus is found the vegetation of the temperate climates; in the valleys the temperature and vegetation are nearly tropical. E. of the Euphrates rice and wheat are grown; in Syria, wheat, barley, mace, and millet; but, owing to the rude method of cultivation, these crops often fall short. Cotton and mulberry grow on the coast. Other products are sugar, olive oil, gums, madder, poppies, figs and grapes. In the Southern part, large quantities of roses are raised for making the attar of roses.

The manufactures are chiefly domestic carpets, saddles, leathers, linen, and a few cotton fabrics.