in Music. See MUSIC.

**Altai**, or **Altut**, a branch of the Danube, rising in Transylvania, east of the Carpathians, through which it descends about 18 miles S.S.E. of Hermannstadt, and falls into the Danube, opposite to Nicopolis, after a course of about 250 miles.

**Altaï.** This name has been erroneously extended by geographers to several chains of mountains stretching through the northern parts of Asia, and supposed to form an unbroken chain from the vicinity of the Aral Sea to that of Ochotsk; but in fact no such continuous chain exists; and the true Altaï is a group of mountains, certainly of great magnitude, that form the southern boundary of the extensive plains of Siberia. This group extends through 2½ degrees of latitude between 50° and 52° 30' N., and through 21° of longitude, or about 700 geographical miles from west to east, from the junction of the small river Ouha with the Irtysch, near the rich mines of Schlangenberg, to mount Goubi, south of the Baikal. The name *Altai-Alen*, in the Mongolian, signifies "Golden mountains;" and in the curious Chinese geography of the last century, translated by Klapproth in 1831, these mountains are named *Kiu-Tekan*, which has the same meaning in Chinese. No doubt they are so named, by both nations, from their remarkable auriferous deposits. The mountains east of the Baikal, which have been confounded with the Altaï, are several independent systems of mountains, generally running south-west and north-east, nearly at right angles to the true Altaï.

The eastern branch of the Altaï is distinguished by the names Mountains of Sayane, Tangnou, and Malakha. The Russians confine the designation of Altaï to that portion of the group which projects from the west end of the central chain, like an enormous promontory, into the vast plains of the province of Tomsk, and which contains the loftiest summits of the Altaï group. This portion has been improperly divided by western geographers into Great and Little Altaï, from an obscure passage in Aboulghassii's *General History of the Tartars*, published at Leyden in 1726. What are now considered, as the true Altaï by the Russian geographers, are named *Altai-Kolyvan*, the group passing northward between the rivers Irtysch and Jeniseï. It is divided into five parallel chains by deep valleys. The general appearance of these mountains is grand and imposing. They rise beyond the limit of perpetual snow, and some of these towering summits are alpine needles, or terminate in abrupt, truncated cones, soaring far above extensive fields of snow. The inaccessible snow summit of Katunia towers to 12,900 feet; and the fine peak of Bieloukha rises to 10,900 feet above the ocean. Many of the peaks extending to the west of Bielay, and north of Katunia, have an elevation from 7500 to 8500 feet. A glacier, exactly similar to those of Switzerland, and terminated by large ancient *moraines*, descends from the south flank of Bieloukha (the white mountain) to the river Katunia. The next in altitude to Bieloukha are the peaks of Alailon and Irbison, about 40 leagues farther east, near the sources of the Karugom river. The glaciers of the Altaï seldom reach farther down than 8000 feet above the sea.

The basis of the Altaï is granite, and other rocks usually Altamura denominated primary, which are mingled with diorite porphyries and greenstone. The unstratified rocks are covered by gneiss and mica slate; while the flanks of the mountains present graywacke slate, covered by secondary limestone rocks which the English geologists describe as belonging to the Silurian and Devonian systems.

The rarity of petrifications in the limestone of the Altaï is remarkable; but in one place Humboldt found encrinites in a compact sedimentary rock. He considers the limestone of the Altaï in many places as belonging to the carboniferous strata. Mica slate is the principal rock, sometimes passing into chloride slate; granite is not so abundant, and gneiss is rather scarce. The porphyries and diorite often occur in beds. Rose found that the diorites are mixtures of amphibole and albite.

From the south and west slopes of the Altaï Kolyvan, immense mineral wealth has been extracted, between the years 1736 and 1845. It was in this chain that in 1725 Niksten Demidoff established his copper-works, which have given the name of Kolyvanskoi to the whole country; but the scarcity of fuel, and the demand for it since the discovery of the rich auriferous silver, have caused the removal of the copper furnaces to the confluence of the Barnaulka and the Obi.

The Altaï yields gold, silver, copper, and iron in great quantity. All, except the first, occur in the Devonian system of rocks, especially in the vicinity of veins of greenstone or beds of porphyritic rocks. The gold chiefly occurs in alluvial deposits near the plains. It is in the same deposit that the bones of the mammoth (*Elephas Primigenius*) and rhinoceros are found. The quantity of fossil elephant's tusks is so enormous, as to make ivory mining an important branch of industry in those countries. The diorite porphyries and granites of the Altaï furnish materials for extensive manufactures of superb vases and other ornamental articles. The quantity of malachite found in the copper-mines afford the finest specimens of that beautiful material, and furnished those magnificent ornaments that formed such conspicuous objects in the Great London Exhibition of 1851. The Kolyvan branch of the Altaï is better known to Europeans than the rest of the group; but it is believed that other parts of the chains would yield to explorers the same valuable products.