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EAST ASIA.
160 miles practicable
for pack animals, the whole distance of 2,600 miles may be
traversed by waggons in about one hundred and forty days, whereas the roundabout
journey fid Kiakhta to Peking takes two hundred and two days. The future
continental railway from Calais to Shanghai may be said to be already traced by
the hand of nature through Zungaria, Mongolian Kansu, and Liangchew-fu to the
Hoang-ho basin. Hence the importance attached by the Russians to the approaches
of this route, which they secured before consenting to restore the Kulja district,
occupied by them during the Dungan insurrection. On the other hand, Kulja
itself, projecting between Zungaria and the Tariin basin, is of vital importance to
the Chinese, enabling them as it does to reach the Kashgar and Yarkand oases
directly from Zungaria, without going a long way round to the east of the
Tian-shan.
ZUNGARIA LAKE SAIRAM THE ILI, OR KULJA DISTRICT.
The two regions of Zungaria and Kulja, separated by the Boro-khoro range,
differ greatly
in size, population, and physical aspect. Like most of the Mongolian
plains, Zungaria consists of monotonous expanses of yellow or reddish clays, with
little vegetation except stunted shrubs, and along the streams the poplar and aspen.
The usually barren southern slopes of the Chinese Altai arc, however, here and there
relieved by patches of herbage, meadow lands, and even forests. The Southern
Katun, Boro-khoro, and Talki chains are still better wooded, some of their slopes
being entirely covered with conifers. But the most picturesque district of Zungaria
lies in the south-west corner, where the depression is filled by the waters of the
Sairam-nor. Although less extensive, this lake is deeper than the Ebi-nor, the
Ayar-nor, or the Ulungur. It presents the appearance of a vast crater encircled
by wooded hills, and rising-only a few hundred yards above the Talki ridge, which
is crossed by the imperial route leading down to the Hi valley.
It is said to dis-
charge its superfluous waters by a subterranean channel under the Talki Pass to the
copious streams which water the plains of Kulja.
The territory of Kulja, one of the finest regions in Central Asia, comprises the
central section of the Tian-shan, here rising to heights of from 16,000 to 24,000 feet,
with its vast glaciers, grassy plateaux, forests of pines and apples, fertile, well-
watered, and highly productive plains. Owing to their great elevation the valleys
of the Tokes, Kungcs, and Kash Rivers are thinly peopled, and nearly all the population
is centred in the plains traversed by the middle course of the Hi, which
farther on enters Russian territory, and finally loses itself in Lake Balkhash.
INHAHTTANTS THE ZUNGARIANS DUNCANS AND TARANCHI WARS AND MASSACRES.
The Zangarians that is, the "Tribes of the Left Wing" have ceased to exist
as a nation, and their name has survived only as a geographical expression, indi-
cating the region which was formerly the centre of their power. They belonged to
the Eleut section of the Mongol stock, and were the las! of their race who succeeded