skill. In the plains and mountains of Irtisch, the sepulchres were found to contain knives, poignards, and the pointings of arrows, and all of copper. The tombs near Krasnojarsk were found also to contain ornaments of gold, elegantly designed, and well finished. In short, we can actually trace, not only from what he says, but from other evidences, that the east was. for ages civilized, cultivated, and at the summit of wealth and consideration, while Athens was scarcely a village, or Rome to be distinguished from the other hamlets of Italy. Even China itself, that great empire, which in name is known to every one, but which has scientifically been explored by few, is not called China by the Chinese themselves. The name is borrowed from the Hindoos, or a still more early people, who denominated it Maha-tchin, or the great Tchin. *

In the thirteenth book of the Iliad, Jupiter turns away his eyes from the bloody fields of Troy, to the plains of Thrace and Scythia. In the contemplation of the Greeks and Persians, the real geography of Scythia was bounded on the east by the mountains of Imaus; while their distant prospect of the extreme and inaccessible parts

* Histoire des Huns.

parts of Asia was clouded by ignorance, or perplexed by fiction. But those inaccessible regions were the ancient residence of a powerful and civilized nation, says Gibbon, which ascends by a probable tradition above forty centuries, and which is able to verify a series of near two thousand years, by the perpetual testimony of accurate and contemporary historians. The original seat of this nation appears to have been in the north west of China, in the provinces of Chensi and Chansi. From the mouth' of the Danube to the sea of Japan, the whole longitude of Scythia, is about a hundred and ten degrees, which in that parallel are equal to more than five thousand miles. The latitudes cannot be so easily, or so accurately measured; but from the fortieth degree, which touches the wall of China, we may securely advance above a thousand miles to the northward, till our progress is stopped by the excessive cold of Siberia. In corroboration likewise, Sir William. Jones affirms it to be proved by the clearest evidence, that a powerful monarchy was established in Iran, long before the Assyrian government; that the language of the Persian empire was the mother of the Sanscreet, and consequently of the Zend and Parsi, as well as of the Greek, Latin, and Gothic; and

*Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.

and that we discover in Persia, at the earliest dawn of history, the three distinct races of men who have been in possession of India, Arabia, and Tartary. "These three races," continues this profound scholar, "migrated from Iran, as from their common country; and thus the Saxon chronicle I presume from good authority, brings the first inhabitants of Britain from Armenia; while a late very learned writer concludes, that the Goths or Scythians came from Persia; and another contends with great force, that both the Irish and Old Britons proceeded severally from the borders of the Caspian: a coincidence of conclusions from different media, by persons wholly unconnected, which could scarcely have happened, if they were not grounded on solid principles." And what is still more remarkable, this great orientalist maintains that it is proved, (as far as such a question admits of proof) that the Hindoos and Chinese, and even the Japanese, were originally of this same people, but having been separated near four thousand years, have retained few strong features of their ancient consanguinity. *

But we are told that the want of seas in the interior parts of Asia, as Siberia and

great Tar

Asiatic Researches.

tray,

tary, as well as in the interior parts of Africa, is a cause why these countries must be rendered almost uninhabitable, and is a circumstance which furnishes a strong prejudice against the opinion, that these countries were the original habitations of mankind. For is it not, we are asked, by the vicinity of seas and rivers, that the cold of the higher latitudes, and the heat of the lower are moderated?* We have already discussed the point at large, both as it regards the state of the atmosphere, as resting upon a widely extended, though elevated country, and as it regards that which rests upon an adventitiously insulated mass, such as Mont Blanc. But one word more upon the subject may not be amiss, and particularly in this place.

"We halted," says De Saussure," in our ascent of Mont Blanc in 1787 about one thousand nine hundred and ninety-five fathoms above the level of the sea, which is ninety fathoms higher than the Peak of Teneriffe. The rarity of the air was here very soon experienced. The robust mountaineers who accompanied me, found it extremely difficult to work even at digging out the snow for a place of shelter for us. They were obliged to relieve each other incessantly. Myself, who am so much accustomed to the air of mountains, that I in general feel myself better

in

Kirwan.

in that air, than on the plains, was exhausted with fatigue in making the most common observations only with my meteorological instruments. This indisposition produced in us a most parching thirst.

We afterwards ascended higher, however; but when we approached the top, the rarity of the air diminished our strength with an alarming rapidity. I could not, for one, advance above fifteen or sixteen paces without stopping to take breath, and I every now and then felt a faintness coming on, which obliged me to sit down. In proportion as I recovered my breathing, indeed I found my strength renewed. But this was not of long continuance; nor indeed could it; for the air had not much more than one half of its ordinary weight, and that weight was to be supplied by the frequency of inspiration. This frequency accelerated the motion of the blood, and so much the more, as the arteries were not counteracted externally by that degree of pressure which they generally sustain. We were, consequently, all in a febrile state. We could not eat. But the height at which the indisposition commenced, I found to be different, as our constitutions differed. I found myself, for instance, well at one thousand nine hundred fathoms, or nearly two miles and a quarter above the level of the sea; but I began to feel uneasy as I proceeded to rise higher. On 3

the