298 GEOGRAPHICAL EXPLORATIONS AND DISCOVERIES IN 1869. 



results already obtained are such as to throw 

 much light on Biblical literature and science. 



Turkey in Asia.^r. John George Taylor, 

 British consul at Erzeroom, explored, in the 

 beginning of 1869, the region around the north- 

 ern extremity of Lake Van, and the sources 

 of the Euphrates, a region which no European 

 traveller in modern times has visited. He found 

 it a volcanic country, with one volcano, the 

 Soondulik Dagh, or Oven Mountain, in a state 

 of active eruption. This mountain is not laid 

 down on the maps. There are numerous sul- 

 phur geysers, too hot for the hand, bursting 

 with a slight explosion, and sending up a col- 

 umn of steam and sulphurous vapor, surround- 

 ing the Mnrad Su, or Euphrates, which, at 

 this point, flows through a natural tunnel, and 

 the sulphurous waters rush down the rocks and 

 fall into its limpid stream as it emerges from 

 the tunnel. Below, it has cut for itself a deep 

 cafion through the basaltic rocks of the Ala 

 Dagh, while, on the small plateau above, stands 

 the town of Diadeen. Rev. Dr. H. J. Van 

 Lannep, an Armenian by birth, but educated 

 in the United States, and for many years past 

 a missionary of the American Board to his 

 own countrymen, has published, within a few 

 months, a volume entitled " Travels in Little- 

 known Parts of Asia Minor, with Illustrations 

 of Biblical Literature and Researches in Ar- 

 cheology," which is a most valuable contribu- 

 tion to the geography of that region. Since 

 the publication of Thomson's " The Land and 

 the Book," no work of equal value with this 

 in relation to "Bible Lands " has appeared. His 

 careful and protracted explorations for thirty 

 years have been rewarded by the discovery 

 of the most valuable archaeological and my- 

 thological treasures. In the Caucasus, three 

 young Englishmen, Messrs. D. W. Freshfield, 

 Tucker, and Moore, members of the Alpine 

 Club, accompanied by one of the Chamounix 

 guides in the summer of 1868, ascended two of 

 the loftiest peaks of the Caucasus range, Kas- 

 bek, 16,546 feet high, and Elbruz, the monarch 

 of the range, 18,526 feet in height, being the 

 first Europeans who had accomplished this 

 very difficult feat. They found, on the slopes 

 at the foot of Elbruz, a remarkable race, the 

 Ossetes, of great personal beauty, and speaking 

 a language closely allied to the Sanscrit. Other 

 small tribes within a limited area speak fifty 

 or sixty different languages, remnants perhaps 

 of the Babel confusion of tongues. Some of 

 the villages of Suanetia, in the upper valley of 

 the Ingur, at the base of Elbruz, are composed 

 of outlaws who had fled from their own coun- 

 trymen in consequence of their crimes, from 

 whose lawless violence the travellers were in 

 great danger. 



Near the close of 1869, Prof. Raphael Pum- 

 pelly, a mining engineer and geologist, now 

 professor in Harvard University, who had 

 spent the five years 1860-'65 in explorations 

 n Arizona, Japan, China, Mongolia, and Siberia, 

 published a narrative of his explorations under 



the title of " Across America and Asia.-| The 

 volume is one of great interest, and his geo- 

 logical discoveries and surveys in Yesso, and 

 in the coal-districts of China, as well as in 

 Mangolia and Siberia, which had been pre- 

 viously furnished to the Smithsonian Institute 

 and published in one of their volumes, throw 

 great light upon the physical geography of these 

 countries. He saw much of the Ainos or hairy 

 men of Japan, and gives interesting particulars 

 in regard to their character, habits, etc. 



The most interesting of all the geographical 

 explorations which have been made known to 

 the world in 1869 was that of the French Ex- 

 ploring Expedition up the Me-Kong or Cam- 

 bodia River, in Cambodia or Cochin China. 

 This expedition, which left Saigan, the capital 

 of the French colony in Cambodia, June 5, 

 1866, and, after two years of great hardship, 

 arrived at Shanghai, China, June 12, 1868, 

 was composed of Captain Doudard de la Gree, 

 of the French navy, Lieutenant Francis Gar- 

 nier, Doctors Joubert and Thorel, Ensign Dela- 

 porte, and M. de Carne", a consular attache. 

 The chief of the expedition, Captain de la 

 Gree, died, after a protracted illness, at Tong- 

 chuan, in Yunnan, China, March 12, 1868, and 

 Lieutenant Gamier, who had been for some 

 time conducting a separate branch of the ex- 

 ploration, took charge of the whole from that 

 time. The party ascended the Me-Kong by 

 water wherever it was navigable, and, where 

 it was not, marched along its banks till they 

 reached Muang-Yung, longitude about 98 E. 

 from Paris, latitude 22 N., 2,000 feet above 

 the sea-level, and within the limits of the 

 kingdom of Burmah, which extends east at this 

 point to the boundary of the empire of Anam, 

 where they turned toward the northeast, and, 

 crossing the Me-Kong (here called the Kin- 

 Long-Kiang) at Kieng-hong, entered China, 

 and made their way to Yunnan, the capital of 

 the province of that name, situated on a small 

 lake 6,000 feet above the sea. They arrived 

 here in December, 1867, eighteen months after 

 their departure from Saigon. From Yunnan 

 they marched to Tong-chu-an-fu, a considera- 

 ble city near the right bank of the Yang-tse- 

 Kiang, which they reached early in January, 

 1868. Here Captain de la Gre*e, who had been 

 long in bad health, became too ill to be able to 

 go on, and Lieutenant Garni er, after consult- 

 ing with him, determined to take a part of 

 the company and make an effort to reach Tali- 

 fti, in Tsse-Chuan, the capital and head- 

 quarters of the great Mohammedan rebellion 

 against the Chinese Government. Tali-fu was 

 a city of great importance, on the direct high- 

 way between Bhamo, the head of steam navi- 

 gation on the Irrawady and the great Chi- 

 nese cities on the upper Yang-tse-Kiang. The 

 attempt to reach it was a hazardous one ; the 

 territory between Tali-fu and Tong-chu-an- 

 fre was the great battle-ground between the 

 contending parties, and the Mohammedans 

 were at this time terribly incensed against the- 



