302 GEOGRAPHICAL EXPLORATIONS AND DISCOVERIES IN 1868. 



an extensive territory, and two fine seaports 

 on the eastern coast. This territory forms a 

 part of the coast and eastern portion of Man- 

 tchooria, extending from N. latitude 53 to 42, 

 and their ports, Possiette Bay and Vladivos- 

 trock, are open the entire year. The Oussoori 

 River forms the western boundary of the terri- 

 tory, which is about 150 miles in width. Man- 

 tchooria proper, a region lying between 39 

 and 49 N. latitude, about 800 miles in length, 

 from northeast to southwest, and about 500 in 

 breadth, is a country of fine climate, though 

 somewhat rigorous in winter, and, with a fer- 

 tile soil, supporting a population of about 

 15,000,000. Rev. Alexander Williamson, an 

 English clergyman, and an agent of the British 

 and Foreign Bible Society, explored it very 

 thoroughly in 1868, and has communicated to 

 the Royal Geographical Society an extended 

 account of its geography and people. There 

 are considerable mountain-ranges which trav- 

 erse the country from north to south, the 

 highest being the Shan-Alin range, in the 

 east, whose peaks rise to a height of 12,000 

 feet, and are covered with perpetual snow. 

 The Mantchoos, the native inhabitants, are of 

 the same race with the reigning family in 

 China, but the tide of immigration from China 

 is fast obliterating their language, habits, and 

 manners, and, in a few years, they will be- 

 come, to all intents and purposes, Chinese. 

 The country is rich in minerals, the eastern 

 range of mountains having extensive veins of 

 gold-bearing quartz, which are now largely 

 worked. Its soil produces in abundance all the 

 crops of temperate climates, and the southern 

 portion cotton, tobacco, indigo, and silk. 



The Himalayas, Thibet, and the southern 

 portion of Chinese Turkestan, have been made 

 known to many of our people the past year 

 through the admirable lectures of Robert von 

 Schlagentweit, one of the heroic brothers who 

 spent several years in the exploration of that 

 forbidding region, and in which Adolph, an- 

 other brother, lost his life. His graphic de- 

 scriptions of this hitherto almost unknown re- 

 gion have excited great interest in it. During 

 the past two years the attention of explorers 

 has been turned in an increasing degree to this 

 region. Captain Montgomerie, the Superin- 

 tendent of the Surveys of the Himalaya Moun- 

 tains for the British Government, dispatched 

 two Hindoo pundits (one of whom, however, 

 failed to make his way through) from the 

 Nepaul frontier to Lhassa, the capital of Thi- 

 bet, a distance of 800 miles. The narrative of 

 his adventures is replete with interest. He 

 managed to take observations, and to ascer- 

 tain both the latitude and longitude and the 

 height of most of the important points, though 

 surrounded by a jealous and inquisitive people, 

 and liable to be put to death if his real errand 

 were discovered. 



The routes over the Himalaya from India 

 have risen to sudden importance from the 

 great demand which has recently sprung up 



in Chinese or Eastern Turkestan for British 

 goods, which, owing to the war of the native 

 chiefs with China, can no longer be procured 

 from that country. The route by Peshawur 

 and Cabool and Bokhara is safe, but very in- 

 direct and long ; the recent conquest of Bok- 

 hara by the Russians may also create difficul- 

 ties in this traffic. A route which is obtaining 

 the preference of late is that from Umritsur 

 to Leh in Ladakh, which is far more direct, 

 though over a pass 15,000 feet high. From 

 Leh there are routes to Ilchi, formerly called 

 Khotan, northeast of Leh, and to Yarkand, 

 northwest of that town. Both require the 

 traders to cross the Karakorum Pass, 18,200 

 feet high. Another route from Leh to Ilchi, 

 still farther east, crosses the Himalaya at an ele- 

 vation of 19,000 feet above the sea-level. Two 

 other routes are spoken of, but neither has 

 been as yet traversed by Europeans, one from 

 Leh round the end of the Kuen Lun Moun- 

 tains, the other from Jellalabad up the Chitral 

 Valley, and over the Hindoo Coosh into the 

 valley of the Oxus. Both are said to be liable 

 to incursions from fierce and hostile tribes. 



The great table-land of Pamir, from which 

 radiate the Hindoo Coosh, the Kuen Lun, and 

 the Bieler Dagh, the three great mountain- 

 chains which trend northward from the Him- 

 alaya, and which in the expressive language 

 of the Orientals is called the "Roof of the 

 World," is now being explored by native sur- 

 veyors under the direction of Colonel Walker, 

 Chief of the Board of Survey in India. 



In turning to China, we have not as yet the 

 record of the interesting tour of exploration 

 of our countryman, Professor Bickmore, whose 

 communication to the Royal Geographical So- 

 ciety gives the only account of his'journeyings 

 in that country which has yet appeared, though 

 it is understood that he is soon to publish a 

 full description of his discoveries. Mr. Bick- 

 more's travels in China were very extensive, 

 and he probably saw more of the interior of 

 that great empire than any other American, 

 or perhaps European traveller. He ascended 

 the Yang-tse and its affluent the Siang as far 

 as the populous city of Kweilin, in latitude 25 

 38V, and thence by interior routes went north- 

 ward along the borders of the great plain to 

 Moukden, the capital of Mantchooria, in lati- 

 tude 43 N., a distance of fully 1,300 miles ; 

 thence he visited Japan, and reached Europe 

 by way of Siberia. 



Mr. T. T. Cooper, an enterprising and intel- 

 ligent English gentleman, in the winter of 1867- 

 '68, undertook to ascend the Yang-tse-kiang 

 to the extreme western border of China, and 

 explore thence a route for a railway or a prac- 

 ticable pass into Assam, with a view to open a 

 route for trade in that direction. On the 26th 

 of April, 1868, he had reached Tai-tsien-lti, on 

 the extreme western border of China, and was 

 in some peril, by whichever route, whether 

 down the Salwen or through Thibet, he might 

 attempt to reach British territory. He finally, 



