ellers and writers said about it in
former periods no longer applies to it.

During a length of time geographers divided Tartary into three grand
parts--1. Russian Tartary, extending from east to west, from the sea of
Kamchatka to the Black Sea, and from north to south, from the regions
inhabited by the Tongous and Samoiede tribes, to the lakes Baikal and
Aral. 2. Chinese Tartary, bounded east by the sea of Japan, south by
the Great Wall of China, west by the Gobi or great sandy desert; and
north, by the Baikal Lake. 3. Independent Tartary, extending to the
Caspian Sea, and including in its limits the whole of Thibet. Such a
division is altogether chimerical, and without any sound basis. All
these immense tracts, indeed, once formed part of the great empires of
Tchinggiskhan and Timour. The Tartar hordes made encampments there at
their will in the course of their warlike wanderings; but now all this is
completely changed, and, to form an exact idea of modern Tartary, it is
necessary to modify in a great degree the notions that have been
transmitted to us by the mediaeval authors, and which, in default of
better information, have been adopted by all the geographers, down to
Malte-Brun, inclusive. To realize a definite idea about Tartary, we
think that the clearest, most certain, and consequently the most
reasonable rule, is to adopt the opinions of the Tartars themselves, and
of the Chinese, far more competent judges of this matter than Europeans,
who, having no connection with this part of Asia, are obliged to trust to
conjectures which have often little to do with truth. In accordance with
a universal usage, the soundness of which we were enabled to confirm in
the course of our travels, we will divide the Tartar people into Eastern
Tartars (Toung-Ta-Dze), or Mantchous, and Western Tartars (Si-Ta-Dze), or
Mongols. The boundaries of Mantchouria are very distinct, as we have
already stated. It is bounded on the north by the Kinggan mountains,
which separate it from Siberia; on the south by the gulf of Phou-Hai and
Corea; on the east by the sea of Japan; and on the west by the Barrier of
Stakes and a branch of the Sakhalien-Oula. It would be a difficult
matter to define the limits of Mongolia in an equally exact manner;
however, without any serious departure from the truth, we may include
them between the 75th and the 118th degrees longitude of Paris, and 85th
and 50th degrees of north latitude. Great and Litt