4 o6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



for the Turkish and Chinese languages, who had been with him to the 

 Lob-Nor. The baggage, arranged in forty-six packages, was loaded 

 upon twenty-three camels. It included two Mongolian tents and arms 

 of the best manufacture, in the use of which the whole company was 

 carefully drilled. The soldiers and Cossacks were accommodated upon 

 eight camels, and there were four reserve camels. Prejevalski, with 

 the officers and the interpreter, rode on horseback. The party left 

 Saisank on March 21, 1879, directing their course toward the Dunga- 

 rian Desert, between the Altai and the Thian-Shan. At the latter 

 range the salt-steppes abruptly give way to fragrant .forests of larch ; 

 the mountains assume a wonderful grandeur, lifting their tops away 

 above the snow-line, and rising like a steep wall out of the plain. 

 Along the northern and southern Thian-Shan extends one of the many 

 oases which wind along like a tortuous chain between the Kuen-Lun, 

 the Altyn-Dagk, and the Nan-Shan — the oasis of Ilami in the desert 

 of that name. Through this oasis and that of Sa-cheu, the party pro- 

 ceeded to the foot-hills of the Nan-Shan and into those lofty mount- 

 ains themselves. Two of the snow-covered outposts of the range, 

 about eighteen thousand five hundred feet high, were named after Hum- 

 boldt and Ritter. Prejevalski then entered the extensive district of Zai- 

 dam, inhabited by Oleuts, where he had formerly sought for the Kuku- 

 Nor. This time it was Northern Thibet, with its table-lands standing at 

 an elevation of from twelve to'sixteen thousand feet, and its mountains 

 towering above all their neighbors, that stood foremost in his vision. 

 On his first journey he had struck the route of the Buddhist pilgrims, 

 and had reached the point where the Napchi-Ulan-Muren enters the 

 Mur-Usu, which from there is called the Yang-tse-Kiang. On his 

 second journey he had reached only the northern borders of Thibet. 

 On this third journey he reached the sources of the Blue River (the 

 Mur-Usu), on the Tan-la, and a portion of the Yellow River, and the 

 Kuku-Nor. The significance of this achievement is explained by him- 

 self when he writes : " European travelers have to encounter great diffi- 

 culties in these regions, arising out of climatological and local circum- 

 stances. The great absolute height and the consequent rarefaction of 

 the air, with sharp changes of temperature, make the ascent of the path- 

 less heights a toilsome work. The opposition of Nature has to be over- 

 come at every forward step, and the traveler must at all times be pre- 

 pared for hindrances and hostility of every kind from the people. Only 

 by the application of one's entire physical strength and of extreme en- 

 orgy is it possible to overcome the impediments of these mountains." 

 He left Zaidam on the 12th of September, 1879, taking a route between 

 his old one, over the Burchan-Budda, and the Nomachun-Gol, and 

 along the latter into the home of the yak and the antelope. He pur- 

 posed to pursue a straight course for Lassa ; and the character of his 

 march is sufficiently described when it is said that, during all the time 

 he was in Thibet, he never moved at a less altitude than thirteen thou- 



