ALTAI' MOUNTAINS. Since the article ALTAI was originally written, the explora tions of Russian surveyors have led to a more definite knowledge of the form and limits of this important range. now described as a separate system, one of the four parallel chains which constitute the skeleton of eastern high Asia, Covering the great table-land. The A. forms an alpine girdle, intersected by wide valleys traversed by many streams, among which are the Tez river, flowing w. to the Ubsa Nor (lake), and the Kobdo, flow ing s. to the Tke Aral lake. The general direction of the range is from w. to e., about the parallel of 50° n. It extends between the meridians of 84° and 100' e. On the e. the A. is separated from the Daurian mountain-system by lakes Kosgol and Baikal; on the w. it terminates in the Katunsk mountains, a small isolated group, in which Mt. Beluka rises to 12,790 ft., far above the line of perennial snow, with extensive glaciers on its western flanks. The climate of the A. is not so severe as might be inferred from
its position. The winters are frequently mild, and comparatively little snow falls. The mountain slopes are covered with rich grass, and their flanks are in many parts adorned by magnificent cedar forests. Stags, hares, and wolves abound in the lower, and bears in the higher portions of the range. The A. is celebrated for its gold, silver, and lead mines. Barnaul, on the northern slope of the range, is the chief mining town; and the village of Zeininogorski, s. of Barnaul, is in the center of the richest silver mines in the Russian empire. N. of the Ubsa Nor (lake), the Tangnu Ula mountains, connected with the A. on the n., rise to upwards of 11,000 ft. They furnish abundance of white marble of an excellent quality.