EXPLORATIOXS IN MONGOLIA AND TIBET. 



679 



library have been written about tlie Chinese Empire, a. great deal re- 

 maiustobe done. Our geotirapliical knowledgre of China is still based 

 on the surveys of the Jesuits, executed in the seveuteeutli century, to 

 which a few itineraries have since been added. Puinpelly, Eichthofen 

 and a few others have only studied the geology of a i)art of tliis vast re- 

 gion ; its botany is less well known perhaps than that of any other i)art of 



T 



I.) 



js; 



-1 



Fig. 12. — a, b. Tibetan jews'sliaip (K'a pi) ; Bamboo, c; BauibDo caac of saino. 



the globe. Its ethnology, though it has been more or less studied by hun- 

 dreds of writers, has never, as far as I know, l)een systematically treated, 

 and the scientific study of tlie languages of China is only Just begun. 

 Of the scientific results of my journey I will here say nothing; they 

 Avill be submitted in the report which T am at present preparing, to- 

 gether with a route map on a scale of KJ iiiiles to an inch, reduced from 

 my original survey. The illustrations accompanying this paper are 

 from photographs taken by me on the journey, and of which I secured 

 some two hundred fairly good ones. 



