346 



GEOGRAPHICAL EXPLORATIONS AND PROGRESS FOR 1874. 



olives, wine, and the manufactures of silk and 

 cotton yarn. 



General di Oesnola has heen continuing his 

 excavations upon the island of Cyprus. In 

 September he struck the site of ancient Cu- 

 rium, the Greek Kuri, where he unearthed 

 numerous inscriptions and remains of art. 



From the new surveys of the island of Cor- 

 sica several of the charts have been completed. 

 From the recent triangulation it appears that 

 the highest point upon the island is not Monte 

 Rotondo, as has been supposed, but Monte 

 Cinto. Recent excavations in Rome have re- 

 sulted in the unearthing of several statues of 

 Carrara marble and of bronze, of extraordinary 

 beauty. One of these, a Venus, in marble, is 

 thought to surpass in beauty that of the Medici. 

 They are supposed to belong to the time of the 

 Emperor Claudius. 



ASIA. The explorations in "Western Asia 

 have not been fruitless. 



J. A. Paine, of the American Exploration 

 Committee, pursued with assiduity his research- 

 es east of the Jordan, and succeeded, probably, 

 in identifying Mount Pisgah ; and in a careful 

 exploration of the land of Gilead he came up- 

 on indications which, in his view, establish the 

 site of Mount Gilead. He discovered ruins, sup- 

 posed to be those of the town of Gaza, and 

 determined the sites of various scriptural spots. 



The geology of the land of Moab has been 

 searchingly examined by Dr. Tristram. 



The explorer of the English Palestine Fund, 

 M. Clement Ganneau, discovered significant He- 

 brew inscriptions between Jaffa and Jerusalem. 



Maudsley, an English explorer, disinterred 

 antique baths, an interesting ancient lime-kiln, 

 and mosaic pavements, upon Mount Zion. 



One of Dr. Beke's latest investigations was 

 devoted to the solution of the question of the 

 real site of Mount Sinai. He believed, and for 

 many plausible reasons, that he had discovered 

 its real location many miles distant from that 

 assigned to it by Dr. Robinson and other Orien-. 

 tal scholars and explorers. The question is one 

 of great difficulty, and cannot be considered as 

 yet satisfactorily settled. 



The German Exploring Expedition in ancient 

 Phoenicia, under the direction of Dr. Sepp, exca- 

 vated the Christian cathedral at Tyre, discov- 

 ering the tomb of Barbarossa and the remains 

 of early paintings, episcopal robes, and gold 

 and silver ornaments. The pagan temple of 

 Melkart was also uncovered. 



Lieutenant Conder, of the English Palestine 

 Survey Expedition, has reported the discovery 

 of important ruins in the hill-country of Judea. 



By the observations made during the progress 

 of Sir Frederick Goldsmid's commission of ar- 

 bitration to Seistan, in Persia, it appears that 

 there anciently .existed a great canal, whose 

 name, was Jiii-Gershasp, extending fifty or sixty 

 miles through the desert to the southwestward 

 from Roodbar, watering the ancient capital 

 Ram-Sheheristan, the Greek Agriaspe. The 

 other canal, which watered the town of Zaranj, 



was probably the branch which leaves Helmend 

 at the Bend-e-Kohek; and the site of the cele- 

 brated city of Zaranj is, therefore, according 

 to the opinion of Sir H. C. Rawlinson, to be 

 sought among the ruins in the neighborhood 

 of Sikoha, while Doshakh, or Jellelabad, sup- 

 posed by Kinnier to be Zaranj, would be the 

 Qurnein of the Arabs. 



The Russians have actively pursued explora- 

 tions of Northern and Central Asia, as well 

 beyond as within their own borders. 



M. A. Charoschin has explored the sandy 

 plain of Kizil-Kum, which stretches between 

 the lower Jaxartes and the Oxus. The natives 

 affirm that the sands are drifting year by year 

 to the south, and threaten to cover the north- 

 western part of Bokhara, as far as Zarafshan. 



The railway to be constructed by the Russian 

 Government through Siberia will take a circuit- 

 ous route by the way of Orenburg, instead of 

 proceeding direct from Nischnii to Troitsk. 



An expedition, dispatched by the Imperial 

 Russian Geographical Society, under the man- 

 agement of Colonel Tillo, for the purpose of 

 taking a series of levels between the Aral and 

 Caspian Seas, returned to Orenburg in Novem- 

 ber. Their computations make the level of 

 the Sea of Aral 250 feet above the Metevi 

 Kooltook Bay of the Caspian, or 1 65 feet above 

 the ocean-level. 



M. Scharnshorst, during the Russian expedi- 

 tion under Kaulbar to Kashgar, succeeded in de- 

 termining thirteen new astronomical positions. 



During the stay of the Russian troops in 

 Khiva, partial investigations were made of the 

 lower Amu-Daria and its delta. The Russian 

 Government dispatched an expedition, under 

 Colonel Stoletew, to explore the beds of the 

 Oxus and complete the work left undone. 

 They commenced the passage of the Aral Sea 

 in July, 1874, charged with the duty of making 

 complete geodetic, botanical, zoological, mete- 

 orological, and ethnographical researches. At 

 the same time a corps of observers, organized 

 by the Society of Naturalists, was to make re- 

 searches into the natural history of the Sea of 

 Aral, taking in, in its operations, only part of 

 the territory traversed by the other expedition. 



M. N. M. Prjewalski, under the auspices of 

 the Imperial Russian Geographical Society, ac- 

 complished a remarkable journey into the in- 

 terior of Central Asia, making his way through 

 Koko-Nor and Northern Thibet as far as the 

 upper course of the Yang-tse-Kiang, between 

 September, 1872, and June, 1873. The Koko- 

 Nor, 10,000 feet above the level of the sea, he 

 found to be a beautiful lake ; and the neighbor- 

 ing steppes form a rich grazing country. Ten 

 new kinds of birds were noticed. In the south 

 of the chain Burkhan-Buda, which forms the 

 boundary of the cold or high land of Northern 

 Thibet, lies an immense plateau, at an altitude 

 of over 14,000 feet above the sea-level. In the 

 Thibetan mountains he found everywhere great 

 herds of yaks, gazelles, antelopes, orongos, and 

 ados of new varieties, and mountain-sheep in 



