THIAN SHAN or Tien-Shan, a mountain range in Central Asia. Semiretchiusk, or seven-streanzed, is the southernmost of the three provinces that make up now the general government of the steppe. In the east are rich valleys of fertile black earth, and mountain gorges lying deep in forest recesses ; but the most remarkable portion is the southern mountainous region of the Thian Shan, which, after the Himalayas, contains some of the most gigantic mountains in the world. The entire length of the Thian Shan is about 1660 miles, and its highest peaks everywhere exceed the limit of perpetual snow. It has plenty of peaks from 16,000 feet to 18,000 feet Ugh, and one of them is said to exceed 21,000 feet. The glaciers of the Thian Shan are computed a not less than 8000 ; and there are numerous snow bridges, some of them a mile and a third in length, and 100 feet in thickness. General Kolpakofsky reports that he discovered the perpetual fires in the Thian Shan range of mountains ; that the =inn tain Bai Shan bas been found 12 miles north-east of the city of Kuldja, in a basin surrounded by the massive Ailak mountains, and that the fires which have been burning there from time imme morial are not volcanic, but proceed from burning coal. On the sides of the mountain there are
caves emitting smoke and sulphurous gas. Mr. Schuyler also, in his Turkestan, mentions that these perpetual fires in the mountains referred to by Chinese historians were considered by Severt zoff, a Russian who explored the region, as being caused by the ignition of the seams of coal or the earburetted hydrogen gas in the seams. The same author further mentions that Captain Tos nofskey, another Russian explorer, was told of a place in the neighbourhood from which steam constantly rose, and that near this crevice there had existed from ancient times three pits, where persons afflicted with rheumatism or skin diseases were in the habit of bathing. Flames are also said to issue from Mount Hote ICesn, near Turfan, 420 miles further eastward. See Tien.