Art. IX. As to the boundary on the west, between the Province of Fei-êrh-kan [Ferghana], which is subject to Russia, and Chinese Kashgar, officials will be deputed by both countries to examine it, and they will fix the boundary line between the territories at present actually under the jurisdiction of either country, and they will erect boundary stones thereon. [118] Compare also Schuyler, _Turkistan_, Vol. II., pp. 127 ff. [119] 175,000 perished in Kuldja alone. [120] The question of the existence of volcanoes in Central Asia, especially on the Kuldja frontier, has always been a matter of doubt and discussion among geologists and Russian explorers. The Governor of Semiretchinsk, General Kolpakofsky, was, in 1881, able to report the discovery of the perpetual fires in the Tien shan range of mountains. The mountain Bai shan was found twelve miles northeast of Kuldja, in a basin surrounded by the massive Ailak mountains; its fires are not volcanic, but proceed from burning coal. On the sides of the mountain there are caves emitting smoke and sulphurous gas. Mr. Schuyler, in his _Turkistan_, mentions that these perpetual fires in the mountains, referred to by Chinese historians, were considered by Severtzoff, a Russian, who explored the region, as being caused by the ignition of the seams of coal, or the carburetted hydrogen gas in the seams. The same author further mentions that Captain Tosnofskey, another Russian explorer, was told of a place in the neighborhood from which steam constantly rose, and that near this crevice there had existed, from ancient times, three pits, where persons afflicted with rheumatism or skin diseases were in the habit of bathing. [121] Wood, _Journey to the Source of the River Oxus_, p. 356. From the hills that encircle Lake Sir-i-kol rise some of the principal rivers in Asia: the Yarkand, Kashgar, Sirr, Kuner, and Oxus. [122] _Richthofen’s Remarks_ in Prejevalsky’s _Lob-nor_, p. 138. London, 1879. [123] Called also _Pourouts_. Compare Klaproth (_Mémoires_, Tome III., p. 332), who has a notice of these tribes. [124] H. W. Bellew, _Kashmir and Kashgar. A Narrative of the Journey of the Embassy to Kashgar in 1873-4_, p. 2. [125] But Rémusat says that Karakash is a river and no town. [126] Wood (_Journey to the Oxus_, p. 279) refers to a frontier town by the name of Ecla. [127] _Penny Cyclopædia_, _Art._ THIAN SHAN NAN LU. [128] Rémusat, _Histoire de Khotan_, p. 35. [129] Concerning the nomenclature of this region compare Rémusat, _Histoire de Khotan_, p. 66. See, moreover, _ib._, p. 47 ff., the legend of a drove of desert rats assisting the king of this land against the army of his enemies. [130] “Galdan, better known by his title of Contaïsch”--Rémusat, _Nouveaux Mélanges_, Tome II., p. 29. See also Schuyler’s _Turkistan_, Vol. II., p. 168.