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Eastern Turkestan is much less nomadic than Mongolia and Manchooria. It contains the towns of Cashgar, Yarkand, and Khoten, places of considerable trade, especially Yarkand, which is the great emporium of the caravan trade between China and Western Asia.

COREA.

Is an extensive peninsula extending east and south of Manchooria, between the Yellow Sea and the Japan Sea. Its AREA is estimated at 91,000 square miles; and its POPULATION, at 9,000,000. Its chief towns are Kiang-Kitao and Ping-Yang. The inhabitants of Corea are exceedingly jealous of intercourse with Europeans, and trade only with China and Japan. The sovereign of Corea is tributary to the Emperor of China, but otherwise independent.

WESTERN TURKESTAN

Lies between Yarkand and the Caspian Sea, and is bounded on the south by Afghanistan; it contains the basins of the Oxus, Jaxartes, and Samarkand rivers, along the margins of which the country is very fertile, but elsewhere it is almost desert. Its AREA is estimated at about 640,000 square miles; and its POPULATION, at about 8,000,000. The northern part of it is occupied by hordes of nomadic or wandering Kirghis; and the other portions of it are divided into three khanates or kingdoms.

KHANATES.-1. Bokhara or Usbeckistan.a 2. Khiva or Kharism 3. Khokan or Kokan.

CHIEF TOWNS.-1. Bokhara,b Karshi. 2. Khiva, Merve, Urghenz. 3. Kokan, Marghilan.

MOUNTAINS.-Hindoo-Koosh, Bolor Tagh, &c. See page 122. RIVERS.-The Amoo or Jihon (Oxus) and the Syr or Sihon (Jaxartes). They flow into the Sea or Lake of Aral.

Bokhara is the chief centre of the trade of the country, which is carried on by means of caravans between India and China on the one side, and Russia and Persiac on the other. Raw silk, cotton, wool, corn, cattle, horses, and lamb-skins, are the principal productions.

Their religion is Mohammedanism, but the great majority of them appear to be of the Tartar or Mongol race. They are a fierce, fanatical, and semi-barbarous people. The government of the khans is despotic, but their despotism is tempered by the Koran, according to which they are bound to govern.

Russia will soon absorb the whole of Turkestan; she already possesses the entire valley of the Jaxartes (Syr Daria), including Tashkend and Samarkand, and the right bank of the Oxus (1873), and threatens Merve, which is the key of Persia and Afghanistan.

a Usbeckistan, that is, the land or country of the Usbeck Tartars. b The population of Bokhara is said to be upwards of 150,000. It contains a large number of Mohammedan colleges and mosques.

c There is not much trade, however, between them and the Persians. They are of different sects of Mohammedanism; and there has always been a deadly enmity between them.

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ASIATIC RUSSIA

Asiatic Russia consists of Siberia, Central Asia, and Trans-Caucasia, embracing the whole of Northern Asia, from the Ural Mountains, on the west, to the Pacific Ocean on the east; and from the Arctic Ocean on the north to the river Amur, the Altaï and Thian Shan Mountains, which divide it from the Chinese Empire and Eastern Turkestan on the south. On the south-west, between the Altaï Mountains and the Ural Mountains, Russia extends beyond the parallel of 40°.

Its extreme length, east and west, is 3,000 miles; and breadth north and south 2,000 miles. Its AREA is estimated at upwards of 5,800,000 square miles, but its POPULATION is only about 9,200,000.

Siberia, which is much larger than Europe, is divided into Western and Eastern Siberia, and these are subdivided into several provinces or governments. The principal towns in the former are TOBOLSK, Ekaterinburg, Omsk, Berezov, and Tomsk; and of the latter Irkutsk, Yakutsk, Krasnoiarsk, and Petropaulovski (port of Peter and Paul).

Central Asia, comprises the Steppes of the Kirghis hordes, and part of Western Turkestan. The former is divided into six districts, and contains the towns of Novo Alexandrovsk, on the shores of the Caspian, Akmolinsk, and Semipolatinsk.

Turkestan, which comprises the territories recently conquered from the Khans of Western Turkestan, is divided into four districts, and contains the towns of Turkestan, Tashkend, Khojend, and Samarkand.a

The Trans-Caucasian provinces are bounded on the north by the range of Mount Caucasus; on the south by Persia and Asiatic Turkey; on the east by the Caspian Sea; and on the west by the Black Sea. The AREA of the whole is about 80,000 square miles; and the POPULATION amounts to 3,115,000. GOVERNMENTS.

Erivan.

- Daghestan, Tiflis, Kutais, Elizabetpol, Baku,

PRINCIPAL TOWNS.-Derbend, Tiflis, Kutais, Poti, Elizabetpol, Baku, Erivan. Kars and Batoum, recently (1878), ceded by Turkey. These territories, generally speaking, consist of the ancient Colchis, Iberia, and Albania, and part of Armenia (Erivan), and they are better known by the name of Georgia, Mingrelia, Imeritia, &c.

Tiflis, on the Kur, is the capital of Georgia, and of the whole of the Trans-Caucasian provinces. It is the chief seat of the trade of the country; and its population is upwards of 60,000, a large portion of whom are Armenians. Erivan, on a branch of the Aras, is not far from Mount Ararat. Baku, in the province of Shirvan (now Baku) which formerly belonged to Persia, is on the Caspian Sea.

MOUNTAINS.-Altaï, Aldan, Yablonoi, Caucasus, &c.
RIVERS.-Lena, Yenisei, Obi, Ural, &c. See page 13.
LAKES.-Baikal, Balkash, Sea of Aral, Erivan, &c.

See page 122.

ISLANDS.-Saghalien and the Kurile Islands, except two or three of

the southernmost which belong to Japan.

■ Samarkand was the capital of the great Tartar conqueror, Timour or Tamerlane; and contains his tomb.

EMPIRE OF JAPAN.

The insular empire of Japan lies to the east of Manchooria and Corea, from which it is separated by the Sea of Japan and the Strait of Corea. It consists of a very large number of islands, of which Niphon, Kiusiu, and Sikokf, are the principal. The large island of Jesso or Yesso, north of Niphon, is a dependency of Japan, and not an integral part of it. Three of the southernmost of the Kurile Islands are dependencies of Japan.

The area of Japan and its dependencies is estimated at 150,000 square miles; and its population, at about 36,000,000.

The Japanese resemble their neighbours the Chinese in many part:culars. Till 1854, the Dutch only were permitted to send two vessels annually to Nagasaki (in Kiusiu); but since that time several other ports have been opened, under certain restrictions, to the commerce of all nations; as Yedo, Yokohama, Niegata, Hakodaté, and HiogoOsaka.

Since 1869 the system of government in the Japanese Empire has been an absolute monarchy, the present Sovereign (termed the Mikado), having in that year reduced the Daimios or feudal nobles to subjection, and assumed supreme power, ruling through a ministry which are responsible to the country. The prevailing religion is Buddhism.

This country has within the last few years made rapid advances in western civilization. A complete system of public schools has been established; railways, telegraphs, and lighthouses have been introduced. Jedo or Yedo, or Tokio, in Niphon, is the capital of Japan, and the residence of the Sovereign. It has a population of 800,000. Miako, on the same island, about 230 miles south-west of Jeddo has a population of 500,000. Matsmai (50,000) is the principal town in Jesso. Yokohama (67,000) in Yedo Bay, is principally inhabited by Europeans. PRINCIPAL RIVERS OF ASIA,

WITH THE CITIES ON OR NEAR THEM.

Obi and Irtish-Tobolsk, Tomsk.
Yenisei-Yeniseisk, Irkutsk
(Angara).

Lena-Yakutsk.
Amoor-Nikolaievsk.
Peiho-Tientsin, Peking.
Hoang Ho-Tsinan, Lanchow.
Yang-tse-kiang-Shanghae, Nan-
king, Woochang.
Choo-kiang-Canton.
Mekong—Saigon.
Menam-Bangkok.

Saluen-Martaban, Mulmein.
Irawaddy-Rangoon, Mandalay.
Brahmaputra-Lassa (Kichu

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Goomtee-Lucknow.

Jumna-Jaypur, Agra, Delhi.
Godavery-Nagpore.
Kistnah-Haidarabad.
Taptee-Surat.

Indus-Haidarabad (Sindh), La-
hore (Ravee), Kashmir (Jhelum),
Cabul (Cabul).

Euphrates and Tigris-Bassorah, Hillah, Bagdad, Mosul, Diarbekir, Erzeroum.

Kur-Tiflis, Erivan (Aras).

Amoo or Oxus-Khiva, Kunduz.
Syr Daria-Turkestan, Khokand.
Tarim-Kashgar.
Helmund-Candahar.

AFRICA.

AFRICA is remarkable for its vast deserts of burning sand, the ignorance and barbarism of its inhabitants, and the number and ferocity of its animals. Though some countries of Africa, particularly Egypt and Carthage, were early distinguished for civilization and commerce, yet it is at the present day the least known of all the great divisions of the globe.

Africa is bounded on the north by the Mediterranean Sea; on the south by the Southern Ocean; on the west by the Atlantic Ocean; and on the east by the Red Sea and Indian Ocean. It extends from 34° 49′ south, to 37° 20′ north latitude, and from 17° 34' west, to 51° 16' east longitude. Its length from the Cape of Good Hope to the Mediterranean is about 5,000 miles; and its breadth from Cape Verde to Cape Guardafui is about 4,700 miles. The area of Africa is estimated at 11,700,000 square miles, and its population at 200,000,000.

GENERAL DIVISIONS OF AFRICA.

1. The BARBARY STATES, which include the whole country north of the desert of the Sahara, and west of the 25th degree of east longitude.

2. The SAHARA, or the Great Desert.

3. The REGION OF THE NILE, including Egypt, Abyssinia, and all the country drained by its affluents.

4. NIGRITIA, which may be subdivided into Soudan or North Nigritia, Central Nigritia, and Southern Nigritia.

SOUDAN, or North Nigritia, lies between the Kong Mountains and the Sahara; and is watered by the Senegal, Gambia, Niger, and the rivers flowing into Lake Tchad.

CENTRAL Nigritia, lies between the Kong Mountains and the northern shore of the Gulf of Guinea to the Bight of Biafra.

SOUTHERN Nigritia includes the countries from the Bight of Biafra along the coast to Cape Negro, and inwards to the sources of the rivers flowing through it to the coast.

5. SOUTHERN Africa, or the regions south of Cape Negro, on the west, and of Delagoa Bay on the east.

6. EASTERN Africa, or the regions north of Delagoa Bay, round by the sea-coast to the confines of Abyssinia.

7. The ISLANDS of Africa are, Madagascar, Bourbon, Mauritius, or Isle of France, Rodrigues, the Comoro Isles, Zanzibar, Pemba, Amirante, and Seychelles islands and Socotra on the east coast; and the Madeira, Canary, and Cape Verde Islands, St. Helena, St. Thomas, Annobon, Ascension, Goree, and Fernando Po on the west coast; and the Tristan d'Acunha group in the South Atlantic.

SEAS.

SEAS, GULFS, BAYS, AND STRAITS.

The principal seas of Africa are, the Mediterranean and the Red Sea; the Gulf of Guinea (including the Bight of Biafra, and the Bight of Benin), the Gulfs of Tunis, Sidra, and Cabes; Delagoa, Algoa, Saldanha, and Table Bays; the Channel of Mozambique; the Straits of Gibraltar and Babelmandeb.

CAPFS.-The Cape of Good Hope, Capes Agulhas, Corrientes, Delgado, Guardafui, Bon, Spartel, Blanco, Bojador, Verde, Palmas, Three Points, Nun, Lopes, Negro.

MOUNTAINS.-Mount Atlas, Mountains of Abyssinia, Kong Mountains, &c. See page 138.

RIVERS. The principal rivers are, the Nile, the Niger or Quorra, the Senegal, the Gambia, the Zaire or Congo, the Coanza, the Orange River or Gareep, and the Zambezi.

LAKES.-The principal lakes are, Tchad, Dembea, Great Lake, Albert Nyanza, Victoria Nyanza, Tanganyika, and Nyassa.

NORTHERN AFRICA, OR THE BARBARY STATES. COUNTRIES.-1. The empire of Morocco, comprising_the_kingdom of Fez, and the territories of Sus, Draha, Tafilet, Beled-ul-Jerid (Country of Dates), &c. Towns.-Morocco, Fez, Mequinez, Mogadore, Rabat, Sallee, Tetuan, Tangier, Ceuta (opposite to Gibraltar, and belonging to Spain). 2. Algeria (formerly under the Dey of Algiers, but now a colony of France). Towns.-Algiers, Constantine Oran Bona. 3. Tunis (formerly a beylik or regency of the Ottoman empire, but now under a hereditary and independent Bey, who, however, pays tribute to the Sultan, and acknowledges his sovereignty). Towns.Tunis, Kairwan, Susa, Cabes. 4. Tripoli, comprising Barca, and Fezzan (south of Tripoli). It is under a Pasha, who is subject to the Sultan in the same way as the Bey of Tunis. (See Tripoli, page 390.) Towns.Tripoli, Mesurata, Derna, Mourzouk.

THE NILE REGION.

1. EGYPT, which comprises three divisions:

Divisions.

Lower Egypt,

Middle Egypt,

Upper Egypt,

Towns.

Cairo, Alexandria, Rosetta, Damietta, Suez.
Ghizeh, Medinet-el-Fayoum, and Ruins of
Memphis.

Siout, Girgeh, Ruins of Thebes, Assouan
(Syene).

Egypt is under a hereditary and independent Pasha, styled the Khedive, who, however, acknowledges the sovereignty of the Sultan. His rule extends over Nubia, Kordofan, part of Abyssinia, and the Sinai region, in Arabia. See page 336.

2. NUBIA lies between Egypt and Abyssinia. It is divided into Lower and Upper Nubia. Towns.-Khartoom, New Dongola, Senaar, Shendy, Souakin, Ebsambool.

3. KORDOFAN lies to the west of Upper Nubia. Its principal town is El Obeid. Nubia and Kordofan now belong to Egypt.

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