I.MMMCAI. EXPLORATIONS AND I)IS< s IN 1867. 



857 



the I intain-smniiiit - 



ha\c attracted eoli-idcrahle attelit iull during 



the | Dr. 1-Yrdinand Sto!': 



i-tri -m-Polish ireologi-it. iiinl Mr. < >ldham, 

 jvneral of geological siir- 



. vd III exploring till' I 



Ilimala;. .-ral years. Dr. Sto- 



inade two tours of exploration tin <>, 



and in tin- lat one, after traversing thirty-one 



. nine of which wore be- 



IT.iiiio and -Jo.;,"!) I'.vt above the sea 



in:: from fifteen io eighteen 



times a day the icy streams >l -cending from 



liieh were throe or four feet 



Mine to the Lanierpass, 20,500 feet high, 

 and was detained there lor three days in the 

 middle of the pass by an avalanche of snow. 

 During these three days he lost half of his 



ate, '.vlio peri-h.-d from tin- intcn-M- <-,,],]. 

 I'rofe--or Henry von Schla^, nt\v. i- 

 tin- brothers SchraL'ent'.veit, publ'i-ln-d in the 

 " Trail-action-, of the Scientific Acadei> 

 Bavaria," in IM',7, a statement of the 1 

 latitude, and longitude of om- Inmdr, . 

 t'oiirteeii of tin- Himalayan suiiimiN, all of them 

 above 10,000 feet. Of these we 

 ding i!"i.i i at, a-. being oi 



tieiilar interest to our students of ^eM-raphy. 

 The Himalaya maintains a general elevation ex- 

 ceeding that of any other mountain-chain <,M 

 the -lobe, having thirteen summits above 25,000 

 UK! forty-six above 20,000 feet. Among 

 these Mount Everest maintains the preeminence, 

 towering, so far as known, more titan seven 

 hundred feet above any other point on the 

 globe : 



One of the most daring and successful expe- 

 ditions (though less protracted than some), for 

 \ploration of Central Asia, was that of 

 Mr. \V. II. Johnson, one of the officers of the 

 Great Trigonometrical Survey, who, in 1865, 

 made the journey from Leh, the capital of 

 Ladakli, to Ilchi or Khotan, one of the six 

 cities of ChineM Turkestan, and for many cen- 

 tlie chief seat of the Buddhist worship in 

 Central Asia. The journey occupied about tive 

 months. Mr. Johnson made careful observa- 

 tions of elevations, temperature, soil, etc., as 

 \vell as of the political condition of the countries 

 through which he passed. He was detained 

 for Mxteen days in Ilchi l>y the Khau of Khotan, 

 who, two years before, had risen against the 

 Cliii.ese rulers of the Khanat, some of whom he 

 put to death and banished others, and assumed 

 the supreme authority himself. This aged po- 

 tentate (for he was over eighty years old when 

 Mr. Johnson saw him) was very anxious to 

 have the British Government for an ally in a 

 war which was pending between him and the 

 inhabitants of Khokand, who were supported 

 by the 1 installs. He at tirst proposed to re- 

 tain Mr. Johnson as a hostage till this should 

 be accomplished, but finally, on Mr. Johnson's 

 representations that the British Government 

 could not be coerced in that way, he suffered 

 him to leave the country in peace. The in- 

 habitants of Ilclii are mostly Kilmak Tartars, 

 and Mohammedans in religion. There is a vast 

 commerce there awaiting an outlet into Upper 

 India. 



Captain II. II. God win- Austen, also an as- 



sistant in the Trigonometrical Survey of India, 

 and a man of high scientific attainments, re- 

 ported to the Royal Geographical Society of 

 London, in 1867, the particulars of an expedi- 

 tion made by him in 1863, from Leh in Ladakh 

 to the Pangong or Pangkong Lake in Tibet, a 

 very remarkable body of water, without, M> fa:- 

 as can be ascertained, either inlet or outlet, situ- 

 ated at a height of 13,931 feet above the lev, 1 

 of the sea, and intensely salt. To reach the 

 lake he was obliged to cross the range of moun- 

 tains which separates the waters of the Indus 

 from those of the Shayok or Nubra. There 

 are two passes over these mountains, the 

 Chang-La, 17J470 feet in altitude, and the Kay- 

 La, 18,250 feet. The lake occupies a long ele- 

 vated valley, and was once evidently much 

 higher and broader than it is now, and then 

 had large quantities of molluscous inhabitant-. 

 but it is now too salt for mollusks, and is sur- 

 rounded by a desert. It is in three divisions, 

 connected by narrow straits ; the first or south- 

 ( ernmost division is forty miles in length, the 

 'second thirty -three, and the third, which he 

 did not fully explore, at least eighteen miles in 

 length. 



Captain II. U. Smith, of the Indian Army, and 

 his friend Mr. A. S. Harrison, penetrated into 

 TH>< f in 1865, on a shooting excursion, and suc- 

 ceeded in penetrating to Kylas, the holy place 

 of the Tibetians, and explored Lakes Man-nr- 

 war and Uakhas, and as they believed di-proved 

 the assertion of Major Stachey, that the sources 

 of the Sutlej River are found in one or the other 

 of these lakes. 



