Note 2 — Chapter XIII · FROM TOMSK SOUTHWARDS.

The entire Altai system extends in a serpentine line, and under various names, from the Irtish to Behring Strait. The breadth of the chain varies from 400 to 1,000 miles. Its entire length is about 4,500 miles, but it is only to the portion west of Lake Baikal that the term Altai is applied. This part consists of a succession of terraces with swelling outline, descending in steps from the high tableland, and terminating in promontories on the Siberian plains. On these terraces (some of them at great height) are numerous lakes. The ordinary tablelands are given as not more than 6,000 feet high, and as seldom covered with perpetual snow, though it is otherwise with the Korgan tableland, which reaches 9,900 feet; and the two pillars of Katunya, which are said to attain to nearly 13,000 feet above the sea level. At the western extremity of the chain are metalliferous veins, in which several important workings have been established since 1872.