Letters, Extracts, and Notes. 191 



The Zarafshau is a typical river of inner Asia^ having its 

 source amongst giant mountain-ranges, and eventually- 

 drying up in a sandy desert. It follows that there is a great 

 variety in temperature and flora, and therefore a corre- 

 spondingly great variety of bird and animal life. The country 

 that I actually worked varied in altitude from 150 ft. to 

 18,000 ft. above the sea-level. There is practically no wild 

 forest in the Zarafshan Valley, and the fauna will, I think, 

 be found to belong rather to Northern Afghanistan than to 

 Turkestan proper. 



Animal life was especially numerous in the sandy deserts 

 and tamarisk-swamps. A very strong and sudden north- 

 ward migration of birds in the spring was also of great 

 interest. 



It appears that no Englishman has ever made a syste- 

 matic collection of birds anywhere in this neighbourhood, 

 and Severtzoff's work seems to include little about the 

 south-western corner of Turkestan. The Transcaspian 

 Railway made travel and work in the plains very easy, 

 but the upper Zarafshan Valley is difficult of access, 

 and the mountain-paths are particularly difficult and even 

 dangerous. 



I also made a journey into the South-western Tian-Shanto 

 the high plateaux of Chatir-kul and Ak-sai, north of 

 Kashgar. On these high steppes bird-life was very scarce 

 indeed, and mammal-life was almost entirely absent, except 

 for marmots and one species of vole. But on the mountain- 

 ranges which surround the plateaux there is a greater 

 amount of life. 



The difficulties of travel, the lack of fuel and of fodder, 

 made collecting exceedingly difficult, and I found all the 

 birds at the end of August in such a bad state of plumage 

 that they were scarcely worth the trouble of preserving. 



I am, Sirs, yours &c.. 



The American College, D. Carruthers. 



Beirut, Syria, 

 Nov. 3rd, 1908. 



