342 



GEOGEAPHICAL EXPLORATIONS AND DISCOVERIES IN 1872. 



the sea-level, with peaks on either side rising 

 to a height of 18,000 or 19,000 feet, with im- 

 mense glaciers, carrying lateral moraines be- 

 tween them. The journey was perilous in the 

 extreme, and, from political causes, he was 

 unable to penetrate farther than the Terek 

 Dawan Pass. M. Keiftsoff, another Russian 

 officer, penetrated to the court of the Khan of 

 Khokan, and succeeded in persuading him to 

 permit the taking of photographs of scenery, 

 ruins, and even portraits of the members of 

 the Khan's own family. A party of Russian 

 travellers, under Government protection and 

 the auspices of the Imperial Geographical So- 

 ciety of St. Petersburg, explored, in 1871-'72, 

 the upper valley of the Yellow River, of China 

 and Mongolia. After passing through Kalgan 

 they crossed the desert of Gobi, entered the 

 mountains of Suma Khodo, 80 miles northwest 

 of Kuku-Khoto, visited the country of the 

 Unites, the Ordos, and the Alaschan, in South- 

 east Mangolia, and then, returning to Peking 

 for supplies of money and provisions, set out 

 again in the hope of penetrating to Kuku-nor. 

 The Archimandrite Palladius, whose journey 

 through Mantchooria was spoken of in the 

 ANNUAL CYCLOPAEDIA for 1871, returned to 

 Peking by sea after completing his researches. 

 An English explorer, Mr. Thomas Adkins, 

 British consul at New Chwang, China, also 

 visited, in 1872, Mantchooria, traversing it 

 from the city of Kirin to Ningoota and other 

 places east of the Soongaree River, and de- 

 > scribes with great minuteness the geography 

 and scenery of Northern Mantchooria. Two 

 English officers, Sir Frederick Goldsmid and 

 Major St. John, R.E., have been exploring the 

 contested Perso- Afghan frontier from Kerman 

 to Seistan, about the delta of the Helmund 

 River, and were joined at Seistan by Colonel 

 Pollock and Dr. Bellew, who had travelled 

 from Candahar to Seistan along the banks of 

 the Helmund by a new route. The party sub- 

 sequently ascertained the true meridian of Te- 

 heran to be 51 24' 5" east from Greenwich. 

 Major Montgomerie, who has been so long con- 

 nected with the surveys of the Himalayas, 

 reports having sent out a third native ex- 

 plorer, whom he names, from his rank, "the 

 Havildar," who passed with his instruments 

 from Peshawur to Badakshan, observing for 

 latitude in the Swat, Punjkora, and Chitral 

 Valleys, and recording his observations so as 

 to form, with the previous observations of the 

 Pundit and the Mirza, a complete survey as far 

 as Badakshan. He intended to go on from 

 Badakshan to Khokan by way of Darw&z and 

 Karategin, but the political disturbances made 

 it impossible. As it was, his life was in great 

 peril, from the murderers of Mr. Hayward. 

 Dr. John Anderson, who accompanied Major 

 Sladen from Mandelay, the capital of Burmah, 

 to Western Yunnan, the southwestern prov- 

 ince of China, has published an exhaustive and 

 very interesting account of that expedition, 

 adding much to our knowledge of this previ- 



ously little-known region. 'Captain T. Blakis- 

 ton, R. A., made in the autumn of 1871 a very 

 thorough exploration of the Japanese island 

 of Yesso, at the instance of the Japanese Gov- 

 ernment. He learned much of the Ainos, the 

 hairy aborigines of the island, and gives an 

 interesting account of its fisheries and other 

 industries. The altitude of the Japanese vol- 

 cano Fusiyama has been fixed at 13,080 feet. 



The archaeological explorations now in prog- 

 ress in Palestine, on both sides of the Jordan,' 

 those on the site of ancient Troy, as well as 

 those at Ephesus, are deeply interesting, and 

 promise to prove still more so in the future ; 

 but in the strictest sense they belong rather 

 to archaeology than to geography. 



VI. AFRICA. Our notices of geographical 

 exploration in Africa must necessarily be con- 

 fined to three points : the explorations for the 

 sources of the Nile ; the gold and diamond 

 region between the Limpopo and Zambezi ; and 

 the explorations in Morocco and Northwestern 

 Africa. Sir Samuel Baker's expedition, under 

 the auspices of the Khedive, seems to make 

 but slow progress. It was when last heard 

 from, in October, 1871, at Gondokoro and its 

 vicinity, about lat. 40 30' N., where it was 

 likely to be detained for some months, cutting 

 a canal through the dense growth of water- 

 plants which obstructed navigation, and await- 

 ing reinforcements. Meantime from other 

 directions the march of exploration was going 

 on. Dr. George Schweinfurth, the ablest of 

 the German African explorers, after spending 

 some years in the exploration of Nubia and 

 the Blue Nile, was sent in 1868 by the trustees 

 of the Humboldt fund to explore the region 

 from Khartum to Gondokoro. Arriving at 

 Khartum in November 1, 1868, he attached 

 himself to the caravan of an ivory -trader 

 named Ghattas, and on June 5, 1869, they set 

 out for the Bahr-el-Ghazal, a tributary of the 

 Bahr-el-Arab. Twenty-two days later they 

 reached Meshera, at the head of navigation 

 just beyond the Djira, which became Dr. 

 Schweinfurth's headquarters. This town be- 

 longs to the Dinka, a tribe which contrasts 

 strongly with the tribes farther south and 

 west. These lie visited in 1870; setting out at 

 the end of January, and coming to the Niam- 

 Niam he found them a very original people, 

 with their hair let down to their w r aists, great 

 eyes far apart, and noses as broad as they are 

 long; height middling, the legs being rather 

 short in proportion to the body. They sharpen 

 their canines to a point as an instrument of 

 warfare as well as for service in their cannibal 

 repasts. Hunting and fishing furnish them 

 food; of cultivation they do little. The Mon- 

 buttu live south of the Niam-Niam, beginning 

 at 4 N., on the further side of the Welle. 

 This river is supposed by Schweinfurth to flow 

 into Lake Tchad. They are even greater c;m- 

 nibals than their neighbors, and physically 

 and socially are a more striking people. Still 

 farther south are the Akka, a nation of dwarfs, 



