686 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY, 



part of Sagbalien, an island as large as Ireland ; the mountain-chain 

 which rises between the Strait of Tartary and the valleys of the Amoor 

 and Ousouri ; the vast spaces of Manchooria ; the mountains divid- 

 ing Corca from China, covered with great forests, and containing so 

 considerable mineral wealth as to afford a profit to the Chinese vaga- 

 bonds who work for it with the most primitive processes ; and the for- 

 bidden land of Corea. On the classic ground of the Celestial Empire 

 are spaces larger than Great Britain that may be ranked among un- 

 known lands. Eastern and northern Thibet, the least accessible part 

 of all the empire, presents in particular many interesting problems, the 

 most important of which is that of the river systems. What is the true 

 relation between the rivers which we see hyjDothetically represented 

 on the map of Thibet and those of Indo-China and India ? Is the 

 chain of the Kuen-Lung, which appears on the maps as one of the prin- 

 cipal ranges of the continent, really worthy to be ranked with the 

 Himalaya and the Thian-Shan systems ? The latter question is now 

 complicated with some apparently contradictory circumstances. The 

 southern part of eastern Turkistan deserves the attention of explorers 

 equally with Thibet. It is the most inaccessible desert of the conti- 

 nent, a land of jade-stone and gold, of camels and the wild horses that 

 are not known anywhere else in the world. 



Prejevalsky, during his last expedition, touched a country of quite 

 exceptional geographical interest, the sources of the Hoang-Ho. He 

 was not able to penetrate to the " Sea of Stars " itself, but he saw a 

 considerable part of the narrow valley by which the upper Yellow 

 River flows toward the east. Access to the sources themselves of this 

 great stream has thus become one of the geographical desiderata ; 

 but no doubt exists concerning the absence of the subterranean con- 

 nection between the Hoang-Ho and the Tarim, of which the Chinese 

 geographers have often spoken. 



The great desert of Gobi has latelj^ been tolerably well explored, 

 but the question is still to be answered whether it is crossed by a chain 

 of mountains connecting the eastern end of the Thian-Shan with the 

 In-shan. The mountains, if they exist, can not be very high, for no 

 large rivers flow from the region, and some streams flow toward it ; 

 but they are marked on several maps of China, including that of the 

 Russian staff ; and the existence of a direct route between Koukou- 

 Khota and Barkoul indicates that there are springs along the line, and 

 they must have hills to maintain them. 



Northern and northeastern Mongolia have been topograj^hically 

 delineated with some exactness, but no naturalist has visited them ; 

 and only three or four European travelers have crossed the Kingan 

 range between Mongolia and Manchooria, whose geological structure 

 and mineral, zoological, and botanical riches have still to be found out. 



Returning along this range into China proper, we enter a country 

 the superficial character of which has been often described, but con- 



