The natural history of the human species, its typical forms, primaeval distribution, filiations, and migrations / By Lieut.-Col. Chas. Hamilton Smith.

  • Smith, Charles Hamilton, 1776-1859.
Date:
1848
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The natural history of the human species, its typical forms, primaeval distribution, filiations, and migrations / By Lieut.-Col. Chas. Hamilton Smith. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    32/540 (page 26)
    ASIA. Asia, apparently the most ancient integral continent of the earth, it may he surmised, is held aloft by the agency of great subterrene volcanic trunks, whose direction is externally manifested by the huge moun- tain range, which, passing longitudinally from east to west, nearly beneath its centre, forms the general water shed to the south and to the north, and constitutes the hinge, the axis of nutation, to the whole of both its planes towards the two oceans. In the east the chain forms two or more parallel ridges, widening until an elevated table land of prodigious extent is included between them. This ‘plateau forms chiefly the Gobi desert; its northern boundary consisting of the Altaic chain facing Siberia, and the southern overlooking the great peninsula of India, contains, in the Himalaya system, the highest mountains of the world. * To the westward it is continued by the Hindu Koh, which is the real Caucasus, and perhaps the Paropamissus of the ancients., Further on, the chain of Albars over- * That this lofty chain was hove up at a much more remote period, is sufficiently proved by the presence of banks of oyster shells, discovered by Dr. Gerrard at 16,000 feet above the level of the sea; and in Thibet, shells fallen from cliffs, still higher, were taken up at the height of 17,000 feet. In Asia Minor, oyster beds are not more than 3000 feet above the sea.