Letters, Extracts, and Notes. 379 



received from Mr. H. A. Lorentz, stating that his expedition 

 into Central New Guinea from the South Coast has been 

 successful. Mr. Lorentz's party readied the snow-capped 

 range which had previously only been dimly perceived from 

 a distance. He has climbed up to these Alpine regions, 

 and has discovered glaciers at an altitude of 15,000 feet. 

 We shall, no doubt, soon receive further particulars. Mr. 

 Lorentz's route was, we believe, up the North River, as on 

 his former Expeditions. 



New Ornithological Expedition to Mongolia. — Mr. Douglas 

 Carruthers has organized a new expedition in which, in con- 

 junction with his friends Mr. J. H. Miller and Mr. M. P. 

 Price, he will traverse North-Western Mongolia, and make a 

 collection of its birds and other natural objects. The pro- 

 gramme is to take the Siberian Railway as far as Krasnoyarsk, 

 and thence go by steamer up the Yenesei to the Russian 

 settlement of Minusinsk. At this place the expedition will 

 be fitted out, and proceed southwards over the frontier into 

 Chinese territory. The early spring and summer will be 

 devoted to working the upper sources of the Yenesei River 

 for zoological and botanical purposes. This region is chiefly 

 mountainous and heavily forested. 



From Kobdo, which is situated to the south-west of the 

 basin of the Upper Yenesei, a zigzag journey will be made 

 through Dzungaria to Kuldja in the neighbourhood of the 

 Tian-shan Mountains. This route will lead over many 

 successive self-contained basins, with alternate desert and 

 mountain-ranges. After this, plans will be dependent upon 

 time and circumstances, but Mr. Carruthers hopes to turn 

 south-eastwards, and, after wintering in the Tarim basin, to 

 push on in the spring into the Chinese provinces of Kansu 

 and Alashan. Mr. Miller and Mr. Carruthers will divide the 

 labours of collecting animals, while Mr. Price will undertake 

 the botany and forestry. The expedition, which has just 

 started, will probably be away about a year or fifteen months. 



