mayor, with a market on Tuesday. The church is large, and was formerly collegiate. It is seated on the Ash, near its confluence with the Stour, 14 m. S.W. of Canterbury, and 55 S. E. of London. Pop. in 1821, 2,773.
Ashland, ph. Montgomery township, Richland Co. Ohio, 90 m. from Columbus.
Ashmunein, a town of Egypt, built on the ruins of a city, supposed to be the ancient Hermopolis, on the left bank of the Nile', 140 m. S. S. W. of Cairo. Long. 31. 7. E. lat. 28. 10. N.
Ashnagur, a town of Hindoostan, in the prov- ince of Uabul, seated on the Kameh, 80 m. N. xc2xbbf Attock, and 110 S. E. of Cabul.
Ashtabula, a County at the N. E. extremity of Ohio, bordering on fake Erie. Pop. 14,584. Jef- ferson is the chief town.
Ashtabula, ph. in the above County, on L. Erie, 200 m. from Columbus. It has a good harbour and is a flourishing town.
Ashtabula, a stream of Ohio, about 30 m. in length, running into L. Erie.
Ashton-under-line, a town and populous parish of Lancashire, Eng.; the town is seated on a high bank which rises from the river Tame, 7 m. east of Manchester. The parish is divided into four districts, viz. that of the town, which in 1821 contained 9,225 inhab. Audenshaw, 3,781, Harts- head, 9,137, and Knott-Lanes, 3,827: total 25,967, forming together one of the most important seats of the cotton manufacture, containing upwards of 60 large establishments for spinning and machine- weaving, four iron and brass foundries, as many machine manufactories, and about 30 establish- ments for the manufacture of hats. It has also extensive collieries in its vicinity, and it is inter- sected by the Manchester, and the Huddersfield and Peat Forest canals. The foundation stone of anew church in the gothic style was laid in 1821. There are 16 other towns or villages in different parts of England named Ashton, or to which it is prefixed.
Askuelot, r. Cheshire Co. N. Hampshire, flows S. W. into the Connecticut.
Asm, one of the three grand divisions of the eastern hemisphere; its boundaries are so exceed- ingly irregular as to render it difficult to convey an accurate idea of its position, limits, and extent, except by a map; it lies however wholly north of the equator. Point Romaine, the most souther- ly point of the Malaya promontory, being in lat.
1. 23. 30. N. Bounded on the north by the Arctic Ocean, or as a medial line by the 70th deg. of N. lat. from west to east it extends in its extreme limits from the Dardanelles in 26. to Behrings straits in 190. E. but exclusive of the promonto- ries of Natolia, Hindoostan, Malaya, Kamschatka, and the islands under the equator, Asia may be considered as lying between the 15th and 701.1* deg. of N. lat. and the 40th and 130th of E. long, and containing an area of about 11,000,000 of sq m. Asia is separated from Europe on the wins! by the Ural mountains, extending from the line of the Arctic circle in the long, of 63. E. bearing winst to the long. 54. in the lat. of 63. from which point they again bear to the east to the long, of 59. in the fat of 55., from which point, while the Ural mountains run in a parallel line with the 59th of long, the Asiatic boundary becomes part- ly conventional, bearing west to the sea of Asoph; from which, the Black Sea, the Sea of Marmora, the Dardanelles, and Levant, form the winstern boundary to the isthmus of Suez which separates h from Africa xe2x80xa2 the Arabian gulf or Red Sea. |
then forms the remainder of its western bounda- ry, and the Arabian Sea, Indian Ocean, and Chi- na Sea, bounds it on the south, and the North Pacific Ocean on the east, and the Arctic. Ocean as previously stated, forms its northern boundary; this vast extent of territory is divided into 11 great parts, viz. Siberia, Chinese Tartary, China, Thibet, Western or Independent Tartary, the iBirman empire, Hindoostan, Persia, Arabia, Asiat- ic Turkey, and Japan, the latter being exclusive- ly insular. Several noble rivers flow in various directions; the Obi, the Ynessei and Lena, fall into the Arctic Ocean, the Amoor or Saghalien, into the sea of Ochotsk, in the North Pacific, the Yellow and Great Rivers intersect China from west to east falling into the bay of Nankin, and the Ganges, Indus, and Euphrates flowing from north to south; but it is worthy of remark, tha* neither in Asia or Europe, or in either of the two grand divisions of the western hemisphere, are there any rivers of importance that flow from east to west, whilst in Africa there are none that flow from west to east.
Although the rivers ofj Asia do not vie in mag- nificence with those of the western hemisphere, Asia far exceeds it in the magnificence of its mountains. The Himalaya range which separates Hindoostan from Tartary in the fat. of 29. N rises to the prodigious height of 27,677 ft. above the level of the sea; the Ural ridge extends in a uniform and unbroken chain, from the line of the Arctic circle to the sea of Aral, and although not rising higher than about 4,500 ft. they are em- phatically denominated by the Russians, the back, and by the Tartars, the girdle of the world; the Altaian chain intersects the entire territory in a N. E. direction, from the Arabian Sea to the eact* cape in Behrings straits, and in the lat. of 49. N. rises to the height of 12.800 ft. and M.mnls Cau- casus, Taurus, Ararat. &c. &c. spread over the western part of Asia, rising to itn height of 8 to
10,000 ft. The Caspian, Baikal, and sea of Ara7, are the only inland winters "jiet merit notice in this place, and when compr/ed with those of the north division of the we-hem hemisphere, they are very insignificant. The islands of the east- ern ocean are so numerous, and so diffusely scat- tered, as to render fa difficult to decide which prop- erly belong to A ti?, and which do not; those however wffifah admit of no dispute may be enu- merated as foiows, beginning at the north : viz. Saghalien, .ffisuo, the Japanese, Loo Choo, For- mosa, F. cf ran, the Philippines, Borneo, Cele- bes, S? n, Sumatra, Ceylon, the Maldives, and Laccah iv j ; the Ladrone, New Carolines, Pelew, New Grur-ea, Solomons, New7 Hebrides, New C'.falouia, Sandwich, Society, Friendly, New Zealand; and Van Diemen's Land, wall most probably hereafter become more particularly iden- tified wfith New Holland.
Asia was the parent of nations, and the scene of most of those remarkable transactions whicf are recorded in sacred history. After the deluge, Noah is said to have settled near the borders cl the Euphrates, and to have peopled the whole continent, the posterity of Shem occupying the central regions, Japhet the northern, and Ham the southern. Javan and his descendants, Ashkenaz, Dodanim, Tharshish, Elisha, Togermah, and Rip- hath, are supposed to have been the ancient in- habitants of Asia Minor. The Canaanites and Amalekites w7ere the people of Syria and Arabia Petrea. Modern writers have referred the pres- ent natives of Asia to those different stocks the |