GEOGRAPHY. 199 



almost the same lan^ua^e as in Eastern Turkestan. He 

 found Lake Lob Nor to be an enormous marsh, surrounded 

 and partly overgrown by thick bushes. 



About one hundred and twenty miles south of Lob Nor, 

 Colonel Przewalski encountered a range of mountains more 

 than 11,000 feet in height, called the Altyn-Tag, and appear- 

 ing to be the spurs of a more important range. 



The expedition started for Thibet in August last. 



With great difficulty and danger, Captain Kurapatkin, 

 another Russian explorer, has completed a journey in Kash- 

 garia (between July, 1876, and April, 1877), the details of 

 which have been communicated to the Paris Geographical 

 Society. 



M. Potanin is engaged, under the auspices of the Russian 

 Government and the Russian Geographical Society, in a sur- 

 vey of Northwestern Mongolia, a work which was intended 

 to last two years, dating from the summer of 1876. As, 

 however, some trouble was experienced from Chinese au- 

 thorities, he did not begin his task till April, 1877. 



The reports of the Russian military expedition to the 

 Alai and Pamir plateaux, by Colonel Kostenko, add very 

 materially to the knowledge of the mountain chains of Cen- 

 tral Asia, differing, however, essentially from the accounts 

 recently published by Captain Trotter, R.E. 



Colonel Stubendorff is preparing a map of the expedition; 

 Usbel Pass, 14,400 feet above the sea, being the highest 

 point indicated. 



A treatise by M. Musscheketow on the volcanoes of Cen- 

 tral Asia is of very general interest. Since his discovery of 

 burning coal-layers in the basin of the Hi, he has been con- 

 vinced that the volcanoes indicated by Humboldt in that 

 and neighboring regions are simply such burning coal dis- 

 tricts. 



Although referring to the recent action of some extinct 

 volcanoes, he altogether doubts the existence of true volca- 

 noes in Central Asia, and adduces a large mass of evidence 

 in support of this position. 



While in command of a detachment of Cossacks protect- 

 ing a caravan, sent by Russian merchants, Captain Pevtsow 

 made observations which afforded the following results: A 

 survey of the route, 560 miles long, from the Zaisan Lake to 



