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From this circumstance, it would appear that Rubruquis had found the court of the khan in the country of the Eluts, to the south of the Changai mountains, perhaps about latitude 44° N. and longitude 103° E, the meridian of the supposed site of Karakum on the Orchon. And it may be presumed, that the imperial suite was now crossing the Changai chain towards the north.
The great central plain of Tangut, then traversed by the imperial horde of the Mongals, and now by the Eluts and Kalkas, must be prodigiously elevated above the level of the ocean. The information here seems corrupted, or at least is quite incorrect. Kathay or northern China is due east, or east south-east from the great plain to the south of Karakum.
Caracarum, Caracorum, Taracoram, Korakarum, Karakarin, Karakum, called Holin by the Chinese. This city was laid down by Danville, with acknowledged uncertainty, on the Onguin-pira river, in Lat. 44°. 50'. N. Long. 107°. E.; while others assign its situation on the Orchon, in Lat. 46°. 30. N. Long. 108-1/2 E: about 150 miles to the N.W. E.
In summer there are often sudden and intolerable heats, quickly followed by extreme cold. This strange personification of the East and North, as if they were stationary geographical terms, not merely, relative, only means that Mongalia lay in the most north-easterly part of the then known world. Called likewise Karakum, or Caracorum, and said to signify the Black Sand.
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