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GEOLOGICAL INFERENCES.

"How much time elapsed between that revolution and the one which followed? Monuments are wanting: centuries have passed, and left no trace of it. A page has been torn out of the history of the earth. Our ignorance overwhelms us, and our knowledge is perplexing. We see one infinity, and we deduce from that another which we cannot see.

"At length the ocean was removed from its place— perhaps by the rising of America-and from the southwest a huge sea cast itself upon the Pyrenean chain. The shock fell upon the black-turreted barrier which may be seen towards Gavarnie. Frightful havoc was thus committed among the inhabitants of the deep. Their remains formed the shelly mounds which are crossed in ascending to La Brèche. Many of the bases of the mountains, and certain of their stratifications, are still the fetid cemeteries of the piscatorial dead. The rolling sea, bringing with it its own bed, drifted against the barrier, covered its heights, placed one mountain above another, covered the immense range, and oscillated in furious currents in its devastated basin. I fancied I could see on the horizon the muddy cloth rising above the summit, flapping in the sky, whirling about in the valleys, and groaning like a tempest above the drowned mountains."

It is scarcely necessary to pursue any further the speculation of Taine, in his Travels in the Pyrenees; for there are wide differences in opinion amongst modern geologists as to the progress of the earth's formation.

MARCO POLO'S DESCRIPTION.

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We have said enough to suggest to the youthful reader the value of the study of geology.

MOUNTAIN-CHAINS OF CENTRAL ASIA.

THE PLATEAU OF PAMIR, OR PAMER.

THE plateau of Pamir, which the Kirghiz call the roof of the world, is situated at the intersection of the double chain of mountains in the province of Vokhan, in Central Asia. Leaving the province, and proceeding for three days in an east-north-eastern course, ascending mountain after mountain, you at length arrive at a point of the road where you might suppose the surrounding summits to be the highest lands in the world. Here, between two ranges, may be perceived a large lake, from which flows a handsome river that pursues its course along an extensive plain covered with the richest verdure. Marco Polo, the traveller who first described the country, says, "Such indeed is the quality of the pasturage, that the leanest cattle turned upon it would become fat in the course of ten days. In this plain there are wild animals in great numbers, particularly sheep of a large size, having horns three, four, and even six palms in length. Of these, the shepherds form ladles and vessels for holding their victuals; and with the same materials they construct fences for enclosing their cattle, and securing them against the wolves with which the country is infested. The horns and bones of the wild

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CAPTAIN WOOD'S ASCENT.

sheep destroyed by the wolves being found in large quantities, heaps are made of them at the side of the road, for the purpose of guiding travellers at the season when it is covered with snow. For twelve days the course is along this elevated plain, which is named Pamir, and during all that time you do not meet with a single habitation. So great is the height of the mountains, that no birds are to be seen near their summits; and from the excessive keenness of the air, fires, when lighted, do not give the same heat as in lower situations, nor produce the same effect in dressing victuals."

This plateau, which preserves in its mythic name traces of the oldest superstitions, is not the "highest point of the globe," as Marco Polo, the Venetian traveller, supposed; but no higher table-land has been discovered. It is not only the central and irradiating point in the hydro-geographical system of Central Asia, but the connecting link of all the mountain-chains in that region. Captain Wood, who, after Marco Polo, visited this grand elevation on the surface of our planet, thus describes his ascent:

"After having quitted the frozen and snow-clad surface of the river Oxus, we proceeded for about an hour along its right bank, and then climbed a hill at a slight elevation, which appeared to be the eastern boundary of the valley. Reaching the top of the hill at five o'clock in the afternoon of the 19th February 1838, we found ourselves to use the phrase common in the countryon the Bam-i-doúniah, the apex of the world,' while

SOURCE OF THE OXUS.

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before us was spread out a large and beautiful sheet of frozen water, whence, at the western extremity, flows the river Oxus. This beautiful lake, which is shaped like a crescent, is about fourteen miles long from east to west, and averages a mile in breadth. On three sides it is surrounded by hills rising to a height of 500 feet; while, on the southern side, the mountains are 3500 feet above the level of the lake, and 19,000 feet above the sea, covered with a perpetual snow, which is of course the inexhaustible source of the lake.

"Here, then, is the actual situation of the source of that celebrated river which, after flowing for nearly a thousand miles in, generally, a north-easterly direction, falls into the southern extremity of Lake Aral. Our guides gave to the Oxus the name of Sir-i-kol.

"The hills and mountains which surround the Sir-ikol are the parents of some of the principal rivers in Asia. From the crest of their eastern extremity flows a branch of the Yarkand, one of the largest streams which water Central China; while the less elevated acclivities on the northern side feed the Kokand river, the Syr, and the snowy chain opposite supplies the two arms of the Oxus.

"The aspect of the country around was that of winter in the plenitude of its rigour. In whatever direction the eye was turned, a dazzling bed of snow covered the earth as with a white carpet. The sky above us was one glowing pall. A few clouds would have been a relief, but there were none. Not a breeze of wind ruffled the surface of the lake; not a living animal, not a bird of any

kind, was to be seen. The sound of the human voice would have been music to the ear; but no one, at this inhospitable season, visited these icy domains.

Silence

reigned around us—a silence so deep that it was positively oppressive. And while I contemplated the white summits of the eternal mountains, on which no human foot had ever been planted, and where, blended together, lay the accumulated snows of ages, my dear country, and all the social joys which it contains, recurred to my imagination with a flood of charming recollections I had never before experienced."

appear

By the

Marco Polo says: "During the summer the ance of the country is any thing but mournful. end of June the snows around have melted. It is then that the fancy vainly endeavours to picture a spot better adapted to the wants of a pastoral population; and the wandering tribes which frequent it appear fully to appreciate its advantages, for they never fail to return to it from time to time. The grass of Pamir,' say they, 'is so nutritive, that a horse attenuated by starvation is completely fattened in a few days.""

THE HIMALAYAN RANGE.

ONE of the grandest panoramas that mortal eyes can possibly behold in Hindostan is that which is descried from a summit of the conical eminences known as the Rajmahal Hills, at the base of which flows the noble river