cxiv GENERAL SUMMARY OF SCIENTIFIC AND 



ern Thibet and Kashgar. The expedition will make geographical 

 and ethnographical researches, and a route siirvej^ Positions will 

 be determined astronomically, and collections made in all branches 

 of natural history. 



A survey of the coast of Eastern Siberia between the parallels of 

 45 and 52 N. has just been completed by Lieutenant-Colonel Bols- 

 chef The undertaking was a very arduous one, as there is no land 

 route along the coast, and in-shore navigation is always dangerous 

 and frequently impossible, owing to the shelterless character of the 

 coast and the heavy surf constantly beating upon it. The country 

 is well watered, fertile, and heavily timbered. The fisheries are very 

 productive and the mineral wealth is great : lead, silver, iron, cojd- 

 per, coal, and gold having been found. 



An interesting rejDort by Colonel Bolschef of the general results 

 of this survey is contained in the July number of the Isvestia of the 

 Russian Geographical Society. 



A German expedition has been engaged during the past year in 

 the exploration of Northern Siberia, under the leadershij) of Dr. 

 Finsch, accompanied by Dr. Brehm and Count Waldburg-Zeil, of the 

 Bremen PolarVerein. The details of their journeys are not yet pub- 

 lished, but the expedition has returned to St. Petersburg after a suc- 

 cessful summer's work. No less than seven additional scientific ex- 

 peditions have been engaged in the exploration of Russian Asia, 

 under the auspices of various Russian learned societies. 



Petermann's Mittlieilungen, Supplement No. 46, contains a valuable 

 memoir on the Pekin plain and the neighboring* mountain-land, by 

 Dr. Breitschneider, being the results of observations during nine 

 years while the author was serving as physician to the Russian em- 

 bassy. His account of Pekin and its vicinity tends to confirm the 

 reports of Marco Polo. Dr. Breitschneider affirms that, instead of 

 one or two millions of people, from his own intimate knowledge of 

 Pekin, its population does not exceed at most 500,000. 



In the Bulletin de la Sodete OeograpJiique the Abbg Armand David 

 gives an interesting account of his travels in Western China from 

 1868 to 1870. His object was to ascend the Yang-tse River, and pen- 

 etrate through the province of Sz-chuen into Thibet. In this he was 

 disappointed, principally owing to ill -health, but his exploration 

 of the Yang-tse afibrds much information of value as to the course 

 of this great river and its tributaries. 



In India the work of the great Trigonometrical Survey has been 

 energetically carried on under the superintendence of Colonel Walker, 

 R.E. An appendix to Colonel Walker's rejDort for 1874 consists of 

 the report, by Captain H. Trotter, R.E., on the secret journeys of In- 

 dian employes of the survey in trans - Himalayan regions. Under 

 various pretexts and disguises, these officials, known as the Havildar, 

 the MoUah, and the Pundit, have traversed hitherto unknown re- 



