The range seems to run north-west and south east, between the Kashgartagh and the Kara koram, at a mean elevation of 20,000 feet, culminating in Mount Tagharma (Taghalmna), 25,500 feet.
The Trans-Alai, seen by Kostenko in 1876, he describes as an alpine chain 10,000 to 12,000 feet high, forming the northern boundary of the Pamir, which stretches thence southwards, and which is crossed in every direction by ridges, all rising above the snow-line, and dividing it into a number of upland plains. The whole region is destitute of trees and shrubs, and even the grass grows only in isolated patches along the banks of the streams.
The great Central Asiatic plateau consists of several distinct sections, grouped round the central basin of the Tarim, which is little over 1600 feet above sea-level. South of it the land rises in successive stages from 3000 to 6000, 10,000, and 15,000 feet, the probable mean altitude of the Tibetan plateau. Above this vast table-land the intersecting ranges attain altitudes of from 20,000 to 25,000 feet, culminating in the southern scarp of the Himalaya, with peaks ranging from 26,000 to 29,000 feet. North of the Tarim basin, also, the land rises in terraces of 3000, 6000, and 15,000 feet, here culminating with the Tengri Khan (25,000), central and highest point of the Tian Shan. Beyond the Tian Shan the ground again falls gradually to about 1500 feet in the Zangarian depression (Tian Shan Pc-lu), north of which it attains a height of 7000 or 8000 feet in the Kobdo plateau. This elevation is maintained in North Mongolia eastwards to the head waters of the Amur, but in the central parts of the Gobi desert stretches from Lob Nor at a mean height of about 3000 feet to the Khingan range. Lastly, the closed basin of the Koko Nor, between the Nan Shan and Burkhan Buddha ranges, stands at an altitude of not less than 10,500 feet above sea-level.
Central Asia has a hardy peasantry dwelling in the mountain region, with its vast upland downs well suited for summer pasture, partly descendants of the original inhabitants, and in part composed of the niany races who have swept through the country. At the foot of the mountains, in tracts of surpassing fertility, Uzbak, Tark, Bokhariot, ICalmuk, Kirghiz, Kara Kalpak, Tajak, Sart, Russians, Ouigur, Manchu, Chinese, Armenian, and Indians dwell in the well-watered plains. Beyond these, in every direction, are the pathless lands, which have been tenanted by pastoral nomades ever since the earth was peopled. They have dark complexions, and
dark colour of hair. The Mongol race is repre sented by the Kalmuk, who have dark hair, olive complexions, oblique eyes, flat faces, high cheek bones, thin lips, and fiat noses. The remaining races, such as the Mongolo-Turk and those of Turko - Finnish extraction, present a strange admixture of types and shades of complexion. One remarks among them fair men, with a regular Roman nose. Generally speaking, however, in the physical appearance of these tribes, there is observable a mixture of the Caucasian race with the Mongolian.
Its people are from two distinct sources, viz. the settled races, descendants of Semitic and Iranian conquerors from the south ; and the races who have been occupying the country from prehistoric times, and are in their habits the same as they were 2000 years ago.
The Turko-Tartaric race stretches from the Polar Sea to the Hindu Kush, and from the interior of China to the shores of the Danube. Vambery divides the Turks who from east to west occupy this extent, into Burnt, Kara-Kirghiz black, or pure Kirghiz, properly Kazak, Kara Kalpak, Turkoman, Uzbak. The name by which Vambery designates these people is 1'urko-Tartars, from amongst whom came the warrior peoples known in the west as the Him, the Avar, the Utigur, the Kutrigur, and Khazar. But the manner of living, the customs and physical conditions as then described, of the Tartar tribes whose arms reached from the Jaxartes to the heart of Rome and Gaul, have much resemblance to those of the present inhabit ants of Turkestan, and the people of Central Asia, particularly the nomade tribes, are in their social habits the same as they were two thousand years ago. In the tent of many a nomade chief a similar life is observable as that described by Priscus as prevailing at the court of the king of the Iluns. Attila, Chengiz Khan, and Timur in histori cal characters resemble each other; and Vambery is of opinion that energy and good fortune could now almost produce on the banks of the Oxus and Jaxartes one of those warriors whose soldiers, like an avalanche carrying everything before it, would increase to hundreds of thousands, and would appear as a new example of God's scourge, if the powerful barriers of our civilisation, which has a great influence in the East, did not stop the way.