GEOGRAPHICAL EXPLORATIONS AND PROGRESS FOR 1874. 



347 



of 111:111 v hundred*. In Knnsu, Koko- 



:ind T.-aidam, dwell four distinct racrs - 



se, Mongols, TangQto, and Daldii*. Tho 



: are a peculiar race, who approach raoro 



i lie Mongols than to tlio Chinese iu 



i--r. and apeak a language which is 



said to he a hyhrid between their two tongues. 



'die of Mongols is the most degraded and 



repulsive otlsliooi of the. race. The Tanguts 



recalled to the traveler the European Gypsies, 



liy their thievish dispositions and other charuo 



tics. 



diplomatic mission of Doaglass Forsyth 

 the Indian Government to the court of 

 ;ar afforded a favorable opportunity to 

 i geographical information of the vast re- 

 gion hetween Yarkand and Samarcand in one 

 direction and Kashgar and China Proper in the 

 other. In company with Forsyth were Dr. 

 /cka, who gave his life as an offering to 

 science before their return, Colonel Warburton, 

 Lieutenant-Colonel T. E. Gordon, and Captains 

 Trottcrand Biddulph. The great gain of the ex- 

 pedition consists in the trigonometrical meas- 

 urements taken on the route, by which the 

 great Indian system of triangulation was car- 

 ried up to meet the Russian triangulations, so 

 that the two systems now lap by about fifty 

 miles. Departing from India September 19, 

 1878, they reached Kashgar on the 9th of De- 

 cember. On the 21st of May a party detached 

 "by Forsyth, in which were Captains Trotter 

 and Biddulph and Dr. Stoliczka, under the 

 leadership of Colonel Warburton, departed from 

 Yengihissar for the western mountains. They 

 reached Kila Pandsha, in Wakhan, on the 13th 

 of April. The Emir of Kashgar did his utmost 

 to aid the expedition, furnishing them with 

 attendants and yaks and horses. Snow fell 

 during the entire passage, and they were twen- 

 ty days in deep snow. The Pamir they found 

 to consist of a number of upland valleys in- 

 stead of one great level steppe. The water- 

 shed between East and West Toorkistan, or the 

 basins of the Lap and Aral Seas, is not Pamir, 

 as has been supposed, but the Kyzilyart Pla- 

 teau, which lies in the east-northeast, and has 

 a much inferior elevation. It appears that the 

 entire way between Khokand and India lies in 

 the domains of the Emirs of Kashgar and Ca- 

 liul. Wakhan, it appears, contains not more 

 than a thousand inhabitants, poor in condition 

 but of an independent nature. On the return 

 of the expedition the geologist, Dr. Stoliczka, 

 died while crossing the Sasser Pass. The ob- 

 servations of Dr. Stoliczka, made during the 

 progress of the Forsyth embassy to Kashgar, 

 demonstrated that the Himalayas, the Kara- 

 konun, and the Kuenlun, are, in respect to 

 their geological character, entirely distinct 

 from one another. The Eocene formations of 

 the first end at Ladak, on the Indus. North 

 of that river are found no later rocks than the 

 Triassic ; while the Kuenlun consist only of the 

 earliest primary formations. The geological 

 character of the Singling-Ohian chain, which 



runs parallel with them, is the same. The ba- 

 sins of Ka-h-ar and Yarkand consist chiefly of 

 chalk formations. 



II. Fritscho made a journey in the summer 

 of 1873 from Peking to St. Petersburg, through 

 East Mongolia and l>y the way of Irkutsk and 

 Barnaul, upon which he established the geo- 

 graphical position and level of fifty-nine places. 

 Tho mountains are nowhere over eight thou- 

 sand feet in height Dolo-Nor, the principal 

 town in the southeastern part of Mongolia, is a 

 place of 80,000 inhabitants. 



Lieutenant Francois Gamier, in the explora- 

 tion in which he lost his life, found a portion 

 of the Yang-tse-Kiang River flowing under- 

 ground. This phenomenon he discovered to 

 be so common in that country, that he was led 

 to suppose that the parts of the rivers which 

 are lost in the earth are as great as the visible 

 parts. Great streams come flooding out of the 

 sides of mountains, and again sink into chasms, 

 to reappear at some distant point. 



Baron Richthofen accomplished a successful 

 journey in 1871-72 from Peking, through the 

 provinces of Shansi, Shensi, and Sze-Kuen, and 

 made valuable additions to our knowledge of 

 the geography, natural productions, agricult- 

 ure, and trade of the regions visited. His re- 

 port affords interesting information concerning 

 the coal-mines of Chaitang, on the high-road 

 between Singan-fu and Ching-tu-fu, on the re- 

 markable beds of rich loam which coat the soil 

 of nearly the whole of Northern China, and 

 which are the cause of the great fertility which 

 supports its enormous population. Baron Richt- 

 hofen's theory of this formation is that the fine 

 dust of decomposing rocks is* precipitated over 

 the surface by easterly, rain-bringing winds. 

 The coal-fields of China, of which the first 

 mine has just been opened, cover an area of 

 400,000 square miles. There are also unlim- 

 ited supplies of iron in the empire. 



AFRICA. The discoveries of George Schwein- 

 furth gave the chief impulse to the formation 

 of the German African Society. Schwein- 

 furth's travels have been published within the 

 past year ; English and French translations 

 have also been issued, and they have been re- 

 printed in this country. When he passed out 

 of the Nile Basin, and, on reaching the Mbrnole, 

 entered the land of the Nyam-Nyams, he found 

 a territory exhibiting a great resemblance in 

 its fauna and flora to the west coast. In the 

 inhabitants, also, he remarked striking race- 

 affinities with the tribes of the western side. 

 The discoveries of Schweinfnrth have been 

 vigorously followed up by others of bis coun- 

 trymen, who have proved themselves, in late 

 years, capable of the most perilous and daring 

 exploration^. 



An expedition left Europe in June, 1873, 

 under the direction of Dr. Giissfeldt, and the 

 military command of Dr. Lohde, who, on ac- 

 count of ill-health, has been relieved by Major 

 von Mechow, to follow up the discoveries of 

 Schweinfurth and the succeeding German ox- 



