goats; of the central and eastern regions, chiefly horses, cattle and sheep; the "yak" of Thibet and Pamer, and the bushy-tailed bull of Thibet, seem to supply the place of the camel among the mountains. In the rigorous climates farther north, the reindeer furnishes the people with food and transport, and also in one part of the year with dress. In Kamtschatka, and other north-eastern regions, dogs are trained to draw sledges in winter over the frozen snow.

Not only the numerical majority of the human race, but also its greatest variety in the species, is found within the limits of Asia. The tribes and nations into which mankind is here divided are very numerous, but of these, the five principal races, the Hindoos, the Chinese, the Tatars or Tartars, the Arabs, and the Persians, seem to have divided among them, as a kind of inheritance, the continent and its adjacent islands, and still occupy the greater part of them. The origin of these races is buried in the remotest antiquity. The Hindoos and Arabs are generally considered as belonging to the Caucasian or white race of mankind, though in respect of language they are quite different; the former being allied to the IndoGermanic family, and that of the latter being decidedly of Semetic origin. The ancient Medes and Persians seem to have belonged to the Indo-Germanic branch, but the modern Persians are a very mixed race, formed by the commingling of Persians, Arabs, Turks, Tartars, Mongols, and natives of the Caucasian isthmus. The Tartars differ entirely from the Hindoos and Arabs in feature, complexion, and form, as in manners and language. They all speak the Toorkee or Turkish language, and form the majority of the people of Hindostan, the western part of Chinese Tartary, and the southern provinces of Russia-are spread in various tribes throughout Persia, and constitute the original stock of the Ottoman race, who have long been the dominant people in south-western Asia. The Chinese, according to the institutes of Menu, were originally a military tribe of the Hindoos, who, abandoning the ordinances of Brahma, migrated eastward, and laid the foundation of the Chinese Empire; but this theory seems to be improbable. The Chinese are unquestionably of the Mongolian family, and their monosyllabic language, and figurative alphabets, seem to have no analogy with any of the languages or alphabets of India. According to Balbi, all the families of Asia may be classed, according to their languages, into-1. The " 'Semetic," comprising the Jews and Arabs. 2. The "Georgian," subdivided into Georgians, Mingrelians, Sevanes, and Lazes, living between the Caspian and Black Seas. 3. The "Persian," viz. the Persians, Parsees or Guebers, the Taujiks, the Bukharians, the Khurds, the Lourees, the Affghans, and the Belootshees. 4. The " Hindoo," one of the most numerous families of the globe, comprising the Moguls, the Sheiks, the Bengalees, the Mahrattas, Singalese, in Ceylon; the people of the Maldives, and the Zingarees or Gipsies, a numerous tribe. scattered over Europe and Western Asia, and found also in some parts of Northern India. 5. The " Armenian," known as the Haikans, or Armenians proper, Abasses, and Natoukhashi. 6. The "Malabar," comprising the Malabars, the Tamuls, and the Telingas. 7. The "Chinese," the most numerous of all families, including the Chinese proper, the Birmans, Peguans, Siame-e, the Anamites, the Cochin-Chinese, and the Coreans. 8. The " Japanese." 9. The Tungouse," subdivided into the Mandchews, and the proper Tungouses, the former being the ruling class in China, and the most advanced in civilization, and whose language is now that of the Court of Pekin.

"

10. The "Mongolian," viz. the Mongols, Kalmuks, and Burates. 11. The "Toorkee," comprising the Ottomans, the Usbecks, the Turks of Siberia, Turkomans, and a number of wandering tribes, chiefly in the west of Asia, and on the confines of Europe. 12. The " Samoied," in the north. 13. The "Ienisseian," which belong to the Finnish stock. 14. The "Koriak," in the north-east. 15. The " Youkaghire." 16. The " Kamtschatdale." 17. The "Kurilian." 18. The "Ouralian or Tschude;" and 19. The "Malaysian," or the inhabitants of Malacca, and the neighboring islands.

But, besides these indigenous families, there are numerous colonies of Europeans in most parts of Asia; the Greeks, in the Ottoman Empire ; the Russians, in Siberia; the English, Scotch, Irish, Portuguese, and a few French and Danes, in India; Dutch, in Ceylon, Java, and the Moluccas; and Spaniards, in the Philippines.

If we are to define a despot to be an absolute monarch, who disposes of the property, the honor, and the lives of his subjects at will, employing them with indefinite and uncontrolled authority, we nowhere, either in Europe or Asia, find sovereigns of this kind, notwithstanding the declamations to which the governments of many of those countries have been subject. Everywhere manners, ancient customs, received opinions, and even errors, form more embarrassing restraints upon power than written stipulations, which tyrants can so easily get rid of by force or fraud. It is only in some Moslem states, and particularly in Persia, that we meet with the most hateful despotism, and that degrading servility, which has been usually attributed to all the nations of Asia. The kings of Asia have been taken for despots, because they are approached on bended knee. They have, indeed, assumed to themselves the titles of gods upon earth, vicegerents of Allah, brothers of the sun and moon, asylumns of the universe, and other similar designations and they have been considered as such, without the obstacles opposed to their will by religion, customs, manners, and prejudices, being taken into account. The governments of Ottoman Asia, Persia, Russia, Bukharia, and others, in Turkestan, India, China, Japan, and some of the islands, are despotisms, differing only in degree; but there seems to be a barrier in all, over which the monarch dare not, or is unwilling to leap.

Asia likewise contains nations whose governments may be compared to those of European kingdoms of the middle ages. Such were the Mahrattas, before the downfall of the Peishwa, and the Affghans, before the subversion of the Kingdom of Cabul; and such are still the Belootshies, the Mongols, the Kalmucs, the Manchoos, several Turkee tribes, and some nations of Caucasians, particularly the Circassians and Abassians. Even the Empire of Japan is, properly speaking, nothing else than a feudal monarchy. Some nations are entirely free, as the Bedouins, the Kurds, and several tribes of Caucasus and Syria. The small nomadic nations, and many of the Arab tribes, have a pastoral or patriarchial government, which is generally hereditary in certain families; others are governed by elders, and form republics. Thibet, Boutan, and parts of Arabia, have a sort of theocratic government, the pontiffs of which are considered as emanations of the Deity himself. In general, indeed, we may say, that Asia affords examples of every possible kind of government, from the most licentious republicanism to the most atrocious despotism.

This extent, though not corresponding to the aggregate amount of the areas given in the table, is considered as the most accurate approximation yet assumed. The whole table, indeed, can only be taken as approximation to accuracy.

Derbent.

.22,000

5,000,000 3,611,300 1
260,000 25,000,000 96

Tobolsk.
Miyako...

....18.000

..500,000

17,500,000 655,643,300

38

THE EMPIRE OF TURKEY,
(IN ASIA.)

EAST of the Bosphorus the Ottoman Empire stretches into Asia over an extensive country, bounded on the north by the Black Sea and the Caucasian provinces of Russia; on the east by Georgia and Persia; on the south and south-west by Arabia and the Mediterranean Sea, and on the west by the Archipelago, the Dardanelles, the Sea of Marmora and the Bosphorus. It is situated between 300 and 42° N. latitude, and between 26 and 49° E. longitude. Its greatest depth from north to south is 850 miles, and its greatest breadth from east to west about 1,200; but when measured diagonally from Constantinople to the mouth of the Tigris, the extent is 1,400, and from the southern border of Palestine to the north-east extremity of Turkish Armenia, about 1,100 miles. The superficial area is not accurately ascertained, but may be estimated at between 450,000 and 500,000 square miles.

From the earliest history of mankind this portion of the world has been the scene of prominent events. The Scriptures are its first annals, and profane writers all agree in acknowledging it to be the source of light and civilization. Nimrod, Ninus, Semiramis, the great empires which they have raised, those which have succeeded them, the heroes of Troy, the memorable reign of the Persians, the empire of Alexander, the Seleucida, the ferocious Mithridates, the renowned Zenobia, queen of Palmyra, the brilliant reign of the Khalifs of Bagdad-form but an imperfect summary of the great personages, and events of which this country has been the theatre, from the most remote period of which we have any account, to the fatal day on which the Turkish dominions seemed, as it were, to rise up in order to destroy its long celebrity. Here was founded the first great monarchy of the world. Here were Babylon, Nineveh, the empire of Nabonasser and the conquests of Cyrus; and here the Land of Promise-the Holy Land!— the history of whose people furnishes the theme of the Old Testament; and here it was that the Christian's Saviour was born, preached his ministry, and suffered for the sins and redemption of the human family. At a later period it formed one of the finest portions of the Roman empire. It then displayed numerous towns, embellished with all that the union of the arts could produce, and abounded with all the enjoyments of luxury. How great is the contrast at the present day! All the blessings of civilization, all the charms of social life, have disappeared under the devastating powers which oppress this now desolate country. The monuments are in ruins, the villages are abandoned, and a great part of the country given up to robbers, while the towns are filled with a vile and oppressed populace. The wandering tribes feed their flocks and herds, and plan their robberies upon those fields which were once covered with glory, and the ferocious Bedouins make abandoned temples the shelter for their thefts and crimes. Such is at this period the state of this classic soil, still covered with the finest remains of antiquity, and teeming with memorials of a grandeur and civilization such as the world never before saw, and to which modern times can produce no counterpart.

The Ottoman Empire in Asia is spread over at least three distinct geo

graphical regions, viz: Asia Minor and Armenia; the low countries watered by the Euphrates and Tigris; and Syria, including Palestine.

"Asia Minor and Armenia" form elevated table-lands, or a series of plains and valleys, some of which are 5,500 feet above the level of the sea, intersected and overtopped by mountains several thousand feet higher. These table-lands are fertile and abound in pastures, but the climate is cool, and in winter the country is covered deep in snow. They are separated from the low country on the Black Sea by ranges of lofty mountains, clothed with dense forests, and are difficult of access, except where the river valleys open a passage for their waters. From Armenia two ranges of high mountains proceed westward into Asia Minor; the one, the ancient "Taurus," stretches parallel to the shores of the Mediterranean and divides into a number of branches, which, in the western part of the peninsula, form as many fertile valleys, watered by fine rivers; and the other, the "Anti-Taurus," penetrates into the interior in a southwesterly direction, and there unites with several other lofty mountains which, under various names, occupy the country between the Kizil-Irmak and the Sea of Marmora. The central part of the peninsula, supported on all sides by those ranges, is very lofty, and the plains of Kutahya and Sivas many thousand feet above the level. Some of the valleys are so completely hemmed in as to have no outlet for their waters, and as a consequence large tracts are frequently inundated, and permanent lakes formed in the deeper depressions. The coasts on all sides are very irregular, and in some parts their mountain walls approach so near as to form bold promontories and headlands; but in others some extensive lowlands intervene. The islands off the coast are generally of the same character with the mainland. The nucleus of the mountains consist of granite and other primitive rocks, but in various places these are associated with beds of marble and quartz, lime-stone and schists, tertiary and lacustrine marine deposits, igneous rocks, and recent aqueous accumulations. Volcanic rocks are of frequent occurrence; the whole country between the Is-nik and Kutahya appears to consist of agate and chalcedony, the strata being beautifully varied; and in the centre of the peninsula, the lofty peak of "Arjishdagh," (ancient Argous,) which rises to the elevation of 13,000 feet, consists entirely of volcanic rocks and scoriaceous cinders, having its sloping sides studded all around with numerous cones and craters. "Hassan-dagh,' 8,000 feet high, and " Kulah," 2,780 feet, are both volcanic; but the most remarkable volcanic region in Asia Minor is the district of "Katakecaumené" or burned up region, 90 miles eastward from Smyrna. It occupies an area of about 150 square miles, and consists of volcanic mounds, which rise partly amidst the lacustrine limestone of the valley of the Hermus, and partly on the slope of the schistose hills, which form its southern border. The mounds consist of scorio and lava, and are referable to two epochs. The older cones are low and flat, and their craters marked only by slight depressions. They are covered with vineyards, which produce the Katakecaumené wine, which has been celebrated from the days of Strabo to the present time. The newer volcanoes, only three in number, though they have been extinct for 3,000 years, preserve all their characters unaltered; the craters are perfectly. defined, and their lava streams are black, rugged and barren.

The "country watered by the Euphrates and the Tigris," is bounded north by the table lands of Armenia and the lofty sides of Taurus; on the east by the mountains of Kurdistan, &c., which divide it from the table land of Iran; and on the west and south-west by Syria and the deserts