GEOGRAPHICAL EXPLORATIONS AND DISCOVERIES IN 1870. 



3*9 



t illegible, and somo considerable 

 tin-re is sullieieut preserved to in- 

 in _T<-a! value as the earliest record, out- 

 : tin Scriptures, of the national history of 

 tin- tribes of Palestine. The inscription 

 lioen deciphered and translated by two 

 eminent Oriental scholars, M. Cleuicnt Gan- 

 . ;i 1 Prof. Schlottman, and from different 

 S.JIK-O/A s or impressions taken from the stone. 

 They agree substantially in all important par- 

 ticulars. The record is one of those cbronii 1 s 

 on stone in which Oriental monarclis were so 

 f.unl of recounting their own deeds and achieve- 

 ments. The narrator is Mesa, king of Moab, a 

 contemporary of Ahab, king of Israel, and a 

 worshipper of Chemosh or Chamos, the Bel or 

 Baal of the Syrians, lie records the death of 

 Omri, the long reign of Ahab, and ascribes 

 tin- defeat and death of the Israelite king and 

 his own capture of several Hebrew cities, and 

 massacre of their inhabitants, to the favor of 

 his god Chamos. The whole inscription is a 

 remarkable corroboration of the accuracy, even 

 iu miiiuto details, of the Scriptural narrative. 



We have already alluded to Mr. Douglas W. 

 Fiv-htieM's interesting narrative of his explo- 

 rations in the Caucasus, and in the ANNUAL 

 CYCLOPEDIA for 1869 a brief account of his 

 discoveries was given. He has made us ac- 

 quainted with a region almost wholly unknown 

 for the last thousand years. 



A still more interesting exploration is that 

 now in progress in regard to Yarkhand and the 

 Pamir Land, an elevated desert plateau, of 

 Eastern Toorkistan, in which the Oxus and 

 the Zerufshan have their sources, and which 

 the Orientals call the " Bamidunya, or Upper 

 Floor of the "World." Eastern Toorkistan, or, 

 as it was formerly called, Chinese Tartary, is 

 similar in formation to, though of greater ex- 

 tent than, the basin of the Colorado River in 

 our once famous Great American Desert. East- 

 ern Toorkistan lies between the Himalaya 

 mountain-system on the south and the Thian- 

 Chan on the north, and its western boundary 

 is formed by the elevated plateau which con- 

 nects the two mountain-systems and forms the 

 wall of division between Western, or Russian, 

 and Eastern Toorkistan. This plateau is the 

 Pamir Steppe, or Pamir Land, and ranges in 

 altitude from 13,000 to 17,000 feet above the 

 sea. The five successive ranges which form 

 the Himalayan system arrest the clouds which 

 rise from the plains and rivers of India and 

 Burmah, and drain them of their moisture 

 before they reach this lofty table-land ; the 

 complicated chains of the Thian-Chan do the 

 same for the evaporation from the northern 

 rivers and streams; while a lower chain of 

 mountains, the King-Chan, and the enormous 

 distance to the China Sea, act as a bar in the 

 eastern direction. Hence this vast tract is 

 almost entirely rainless, and much of it is a 

 desert. The Pamir Steppe is especially sterile 

 and forbidding, though there are not wanting 

 evidences that it was once fertile, and its pro- 



ductions so abundant that the Orientals declare 

 it to have IK- i-ii the site of tin- <;anl< n of 1 

 The really populous and productive portion of 

 K.ist. rn Toorkistan, of which the kingdom of 

 Yiirkliund is a port, is in shape much like a 

 horseshoe: southward, westward, and north- 

 ward, the lofty mountain-tops, and th- 

 lofty but equally sterile table-lands, form its 

 walls, and in the central concavity of the horse- 

 shoe there is another desert of sand and alkali 

 the Great Desert of Gobi. The crcscent- 

 shaped territory sloping down from the moun- 

 tains to this vast desert is, however, highly 

 fertile, and yields abundantly of all the fruits 

 and grains of temperate climates, the lack of 

 rain being supplied by very thorough irriga- 

 tion, the mountain-streams which would other- 

 wise lose themselves in the <!-:! being di- 

 verted for this purpose, and their whole supply 

 of water, in many cases, exhausted. 



This region had been under the sway of the 

 Chinese Emperor till 1864, though not without 

 frequent insurrections and revolts ; but at that 

 time Yakoob Beg, a petty governor of a town 

 in Khokand, assisted the native Mussulman 

 rulers, who had been dispossessed by the Chi- 

 nese, in regaining their power, and then seized 

 upon it himself. He is evidently a man of 

 great executive ability, has established himself 

 very firmly upon the throne, and is implicitly 

 obeyed by the Yarkhondis, who seem to be nat- 

 urally a peaceful- and industrious people. Ho 

 has within the last two years assumed the title 

 of Ataligh Ghazi, or " Leader of the Faithful." 

 It was to this monarch that Mr. Douglas For- 

 syth, British resident in Cashmere, sent a horse- 

 load of tea, grown in Assam, as a present. The 

 Yarkhandis and their rulers are passionately 

 fond of tea, and since driving out the Chinese- 

 they had only been able to obtain it from Rus- 

 sia. The present was, therefore, very accept- 

 able. In 1869 Mr. Shaw, one of the British 

 cultivators of tea in Assam, having made up a 

 caravan cargo of tea, set out with it for Kash- 

 gar the capital of Yarkhand, and arrived there 

 about the same time with Mr. Hay ward, who 

 had been sent out by the Royal Geographical 

 Society to explore the Pamir Steppe, but, being 

 unable to penetrate to it, had visited Yarkhand. 

 The Atalagh Ghazi received both very cordially, 

 though at first with some suspicion ; but, event- 

 ually becoming fully satisfied, desired to enter 

 into friendly relations with the British Gov- 

 ernment ; and a large traffic will undoubtedly 

 ensue. Mr. Hayward returned to British India, 

 but set out again in 1870, on his perilous and 

 difficult journey to penetrate the Pamir Steppe, 

 which is only inhabited by nomadic tribes of 

 fierce Kirgheez, who have little regard for human 

 life. He had great difficulty in reaching the 

 frontiers of Cashmere, and the passes which 

 led to this elevated region, but at the last re- 

 port was pushing forward. The Kirgheoz of 

 this region are very different from their neigh- 

 bors the Yarkhandis in temper, disposition, and 

 civilization. The latter have attained to a 



