1866. ] Geography and Ethnology. 555 
the hilly ranges which run nearly parallel to the coast, until, 250 
miles from the coast, it reached an altitude of 2,500 feet above the 
sea level. The forest is so continuous that the small tracts of 
prairie land seemed like islands in a sea of foliage. Nearly all the 
quadrupeds characteristic of Africa were absent, lion, rhinoceros, 
giraffe, zebra, ostrich, eland, &c., whilst several apes were peculiar 
to the region, including the gorilla. 
An’ important paper was read on Monday the 27th, “On a 
Recent Expedition from Leh to Khotan, in Chinese Tartary.” The 
author was Mr. W. H. Johnson, one of the civil assistants in the 
Great Trigonometrical Survey of India. This great survey pro- 
perly terminates in North-western India, at the Karakorum range 
of the Himalaya ; the officers engaged, however, on carrying their 
triangulations to the summit of these passes, naturally cast a 
longing eye over the forbidden ground beyond, a region of which 
nothing as yet is accurately known. Mr. Johnson had the bold- 
ness to adventure into this unknown land. He crossed, northward 
of Leh, the pass of Lumkang (19,533 feet), and reached the 
elevated plateaux which extend between the Karakorum and the Kiun 
Lun ranges of mountains. The first plain is about 17,300 feet 
above the sea level, and bears traces of having been the bed of a 
large lake; a second plain slopes for a distance of 30 miles, in a 
north-easterly direction, from 16,700 feet down to 15,300, when it 
rises again towards the watershed of ‘the Kiun Lun. He struck 
the Karakash river of Tartary at a point where it is 15,500 feet 
above the sea-level. Great plains stretched hence towards the east 
and south-east, but to the west lay a series of deep valleys. Beyond 
this point Mr. Johnson travelled under the protection of the Khan 
Badsha of Khotan, who, having shaken off the yoke of the Chinese, 
was anxious to cultivate friendly relations with the British Govern- 
ment, and invited the adventurous surveyor to visit him in his 
capital, Ilchi. He sent an escort to meet him, and the march was 
resumed into the plains of Tartary. It took him sixteen days 
to travel from the Karakash to Ilchi. He met there with a most 
friendly reception, and made excursions into the neighbouring 
country. The city contains a population of 40,000, and is the 
seat of many manufactures and a busy trade. It is 4,329 feet 
above the sea-level. At a distance of six miles to the north-east 
of the city commences the great desert of Gobi, with its shifting 
sands, which move along in vast billows overpowering everything. 
The sand is an extremely fine dust resembling pulverized clay, 
and when it moves the whole atmosphere becomes so dark that Mr. 
Johnson, at Ichi, was obliged to use a candle at mid-day to read 
large print. Where the dust falls it fertilizes the soil, and the 
province of Khotan is so much enriched by it that the district is 
more productive than the valley of Kashmere; cotton, silk, and 
VOL, II. 2P 
