Inland Seas and succession of great lakes or inland seas are situated all along the northern slope of the high plateaus of western and eastern Asia, their levels becoming higher as we ad vance farther E. The Caspian, 800 miles long and 270 wide, is an immense sea, even larger than the Black Sea, but its level is now 85 feet below the level of the ocean: Lake Aral, nearly as wide as the ./Egean Sea, has its level 157 feet above the ocean; farther E. we have Lake Balkash (780 feet), Zaison (1,200 feet), and Lake Baikal (1,550 feet). Many large lakes appear on the plateau of Tibet (Tengri-nor, Bakha), and on the high plateau of the Selenga and Vitim (Ubsa-nor, Ikhe-aral, Kosogol, Oron) ; and smaller lakes and ponds are numerous also in the plateau of the Dec can, Armenia, and Asia Minor. Three large lakes, Urmia, Van, and Goktcha, and many smaller ones, lie on the high est part of the Armenian plateau. On the Pacific slope of the great plateau, the great rivers of China and the Amur, with its tributaries, have along their lower courses some large and very many small lakes.
great plateaus, built up of crystalline unstratified rocks, gran ites, granitites, syenites, and dionites, as well as of gneisses, talc, and mica schists, clap-slates and limestones, all belong to the Archan formation (Hu ronian, Laurentian, Silurian, and partly Devonian), and have been submerged by the sea since the Devonian epoch. The higher terrace of the plateau of Pamir and the plateaus of the Selenga and Vitim are built up only of Huronian and Laurentian azoic schists; and even Silu rian deposits, widely spread on the plains, are doubtful on the plateaus. During the Jurassic period, immense fresh water basins covered the surface of those pla teaus, and have left their traces in Ju rassic coal beds, which are found in the depressions of the plateaus and lowlands. Carboniferous deposits are met with in Turkestan, India, and western Asia; while in eastern Asia the numerous coal beds of Manchuria, China, and the archi pelagoes are all Jurassic.
More than 120 active volcanoes are known in Asia, chiefly in the islands of the S. E., the Philippines, Japan, the Kurile, and Kamchatka, and also in a few islands of the Seas of Bengal and Arabia, and in western Asia. Numerous traces of volcanic eruptions are found in eastern Tian-shan in the northwestern border ridges of the high Siberian pla teau, and in the S, W. of Aigun, in Manchuria. Earthquakes are frequent, especially in Armenia, Turkestan, and around Lake Baikal.
Minerals.—There are gold mines of great wealth in the Urals, the Altai, and eastern Siberia; and auriferous sands are found in Korea, Sumatra, Japan, and in the Caucasus Mountains. Silver
is extracted in Siberia; platina, in the Urals; copper, in Japan, India, and Siberia ; tin, in Banca; mercury, in Japan. Iron ore is found in nearly all the mountainous regions, especially in Asia Minor, Persia, Turkestan, India, China, Japan, and Siberia; but iron mining is still at a rudimentary stage. Immense coal-beds are spread over China and the islands of the Pacific (Hainan, Japanese Archipelago, Sakhalin), east ern Siberia, Turkestan, India, Persia, and Asia Minor. They cover no less than 500,000 square miles in China alone; but the extraction of coal is as yet very limited. Graphite of very high quality is found in the Sayans and northern Siberia. The diamonds of India, the sapphires of Ceylon, the rubies of Burma and Turkestan, the topazes, beryls, etc., of the Urals and Nertchinsk, have a wide repute. Layers of rock-salt are widely spread, and still more so the salt lakes and springs. The petroleum wells of the Caspian shores already rival those of the United States. A variety of mineral springs, some of them equal to the best waters of western Europe, are widely spread over Asia.
Flora.—There is little difference be tween the vegetation of the E. of Europe and that of northwestern Asia. Forests cover extensive tracts, and consist of pine, fir, larch, cedar, silver fir, birch, aspen, and poplars.
In the region to the E. of the high pla teau, including China, Manchuria, and Japan, oak reappears. So also the wal nut, the hazel, the lime tree, and the maple; while several new species of pop lars, willows, acacias, and many others, make their appearance.
The beech is characteristic of the forests of western Asia. Here also are found all the trees of southern Europe. The vine and several of the European fruit trees (plum, cherry, apricot, pear) are regarded by botanists as belonging originally to this region. The flora of Asia Minor combines those of southern Europe and northern Africa, owing to its evergreen oaks, laurels, olive trees, myrtles, oleanders, and pistachio trees, as also to its variety of bulbous plants.
Southern and southeastern Asia, with their numerous islands, display the richest flora. In the neighborhood of the sea-coasts, the tropical vegetation reaches the variety and size of the American. Here the sugar cane, the cotton shrub, and the indigo had their origin. The cocoanut palm and the banyan tree are the most striking feature of the coast vegetation. Ferns reach the size of large trees. The gigantic banyan, the screw pine, the India rubber, and the red cotton trees occur in immense forests; and bamboos grow thick and high.