GEOGRAPHY. 345 



partment in St. Petersburg, is interesting as embodying the 

 results of the recent Russian surveys on the Alai plateau. 

 Colonel Przewalsky's explorations are not shown on this 

 map; and it may be here remarked that it is now seriously 

 doubted whether this officer has ever succeeded in reaching 

 Lob Nor, as has been affirmed, the discrepancies between his 

 descriptions and information obtained from Chinese sources 

 seeming irreconcilable. In the Verhandlungen cler Gesell- 

 schaft far Erdkunde zu Berlin, Professor von Richthofen 

 discusses this question, and arrives at the conclusion that 

 Colonel Przewalsky mistook some other lake for Lob Nor. 

 In addition to the wild camels found by Przewalsky on the 

 plains in the southern part of the desert of Gobi, large herds 

 of these animals, numbering from ten to sixty, have been seen 

 by a Russian official travelling from the military post at Zais- 

 san to Gutschen. The camels have a double hump, and dif- 

 fer but little from the tame ones. The meat is said to be of 

 agreeable flavor {Journal de St.-Petersbourg, September 25 

 and October 7, 1878). 



M. SevertsofF, the geologist who explored the Tian Shan 

 Mountains in 1864 and 1865, has been engaged in an exami- 

 nation of the Alai and Trans-Alai range, the results of which 

 are now being prepared by him for publication. For the first 

 time, magnetic observations were made on the Pamir pla- 

 teau, heights were carefully measured, and positions astro- 

 nomically determined, so that very valuable geographical re- 

 sults may be expected from the labors of the expedition. 



In Rottger's Kussische Revue (1878, No. 8) are some notices 

 of the travels last vear of the o-eolosrist Herr J. W. Musche- 

 tow. He approached the region of the Kara-Kul from the 

 northward, and describes the formation of the Pamir and 

 Alai. No meridional elevation whatever could be detected 

 along the whole route which could confirm the existence of 

 a mountain-chain ranging north and south like the Bolor, as 

 reported by Humboldt and others. 



Russian officers are engaged in various directions in sur- 

 veying and exploring Central Asia, and the results of their 

 labors are being constantly received and published by the 

 Russian Geographical Societ}^. In this way the maps each 

 year approach more nearly to correctness, but no accurate 

 account of each expedition can be given. 



P2 



