1890 ] AJdress. 83 



The object of his journey is to make observations on the physical 

 geography and geology of the tract. 



Mons Dutreuil de Rhins has lately brought out a work entitled 

 " Asie Centrale." It comprises a volume of text and an atlas of 23 maps, 

 besides a general map of the true Central Asia, i, e., Tliibet and the 

 adjacent regions, from Lake Lob 'Nov to British India, and from Kashgaria 

 to the -western provinces of China, between the latitudes of 27° and 41° 

 north, and longitudes 78° and 102° east of Paris. The author professes 

 to have reconstituted the cartography of Central Asia by making a fresh 

 critical analysis of all the original documents ancient and modei-n, 

 European and Chinese. 



The Abbe Desgodins, who was for so many years at Bathang, has 

 returned to France and has taken with him the MS. of a great 

 Dictionary of the Tibetan language, in which the meaning of each word 

 is given in English, French and Latin. He has worked at it for the last 

 25 years and now proposes to have it printed in France. 



Tnrlcestan and Central Asia. Tliere has been unwonted activity 

 in exploring in the neighbourhood of the Pamir and other parts of 

 Central Asia during the year. At least three Russian expeditions, 

 one Austrian and one French were so engaged, besides private and 

 official explorers fi'om our own side. 



The princij^al of the Russian expeditions was that which was to 

 have started for Tibet in 1888 under Prjevalski, and after his death 

 was placed under charge of his companion, Colonel PevtzofP. The ex- 

 pedition, composed of Col. Pevtzoff and two other companions of Prje- 

 valski, Lieuts. Roborovsky and Kozloff, left Prjevalsk (Karakol) about 

 the middle of May last, crossed the Tian Shan by the Baraskaunski and 

 Bedel Passes and then made their way by the Dungaret-ma Pass to 

 the Tarkand River by a route hitherto untraversed by any European. 

 They found the Sart inhabitants friendly. This type shows an Aryan 

 descent and both men and women are good looking. From the Yarkand 

 River they went to Aksak Moral. In the desert of Takla Maklan to 

 the right bank of the Yarkand River, they found many buried remains 

 of ancient cities. They reached Yarkand on the 3rd July, where the 

 geologist, M. Bogdanovitch, joined them, and then went on to Khotan and 

 Nia, where they propose to winter and in the spring to go into Tibet 

 over the Toguz Daban Range, by a pass discovered by M. Roborovsky, 

 at Youngilik-Khanym, leading to a desolate and uninhabited plateau 

 at 12,000 feet elevation but well watered and cultivated more to the 

 south. This pass is about 80 miles to the east of the pass across the Kuen 

 Lun Mts. from Southei'n Khotan to Lake Zashi Kul. The expedition 

 has already collected a good many new geographical and ethnographical 



