GEOGRAPHICAL PROGRESS AND DISCOVERY IN 1870. 



a continuous garden, with mountain-streams 

 aii<i dikes intersecting it in all directions. The 

 stationary tribes inhabit the lower slopes of 

 t';>- mountains, the valleys, and plains, cut 

 through by canals south of the Syrdaria. The 

 I ID], illation consists of the descendants of Turk 

 trilirs, which came f rom Turkistan, Samarcand, 

 and Bokhara. The nomadic tribes dwell to the 

 northward. Grain, cotton, silk, salt, naphtha, 

 and various other products, are obtained. The 

 trade with Russia is carried on with caravans 

 flit Tashkend ; there is also a trade with Kash- 

 gar and Bokhara. 



The Russian expedition under Sosnovski, 

 through Mongolia into the interior of China 

 for the exploration of better trade-routes, found 

 between Chankow and Saissan good wheeling 

 roads, plenty of water, and a great saving in 

 distance over the route by way of Kiachta for 

 the tea-trade with the province of Se-tshuan. 

 If a railroad as far as Tjumen, connecting with 

 steam-transport on the river Irtish, should be 

 established, an important commercial route 

 would be opened up between China and Rus- 

 sia. The expedition made interesting astro- 

 nomical, topographical, and orographical ob- 

 servations, and collected specimens of all the 

 principal products and commercial commodi- 

 ties of the country, as well as of its flora and 

 fauna. Sosnovski crossed the Thian-shan north 

 of Khami, where the altitude was 8,930 feet. 

 The elevation of Khami, south of the pass, is 

 3,150 feet; and Barkul, north of it, is 6,700 

 feet above the level of the sea. Sosnovski con- 

 tradicts the common impression that the Chi- 

 nese are a stationary and non-progressive 

 people, and pays a high tribute to their agri- 

 cultural and Industrial abilities. Their system 

 of fertilization and irrigation is as scientific as 

 that of any country. In some branches of in- 

 dustry, for example, the finer porcelain man- 

 ufactures, there has been a decline in late 

 years, attributable to the political agitations 

 which have convulsed the land : in 1860, the 

 Taipings destroyed the most important porce- 

 lain-factories in China, those of Tsian-se. The 

 fine fleeces of the Thibet goat have also nearly 

 disappeared from the market, because in the 

 last great rebellion in the district of Nin-sia- 

 foo the breed was almost entirely destroyed, 

 the animals having been used for food ; and the 

 people, too, who worked up the fleeces into 

 beautiful fabrics, perished in great numbers. 

 The commerce of China is established, accord- 

 ing to Sosnovski, on a very intelligent and 

 promising basis. M. Nitikin, a Russian mer- 

 chant, recently made a journey from Uscha, in 

 Khokan, to Djetischar. He says that the 

 Terek Pass route is only passable for a month 

 or two in winter, when the mountain-streams 

 are frozen over. The' pundit Nain Sing made 

 a journey through Thibet in the disguise of 

 a Lama pilgrim. The country traversed by 

 the bold explorator, who was formerly an 

 assistant of Schlagintweit and of Colonel 

 Montgomery, was entirely new to geography, 



and most interesting. His route lay from 

 Western Thibet along the ncries of lakes which 

 extend for 800 miles across the plateau at an 

 elevation of 13,700 to 15,000 feet, the lust of 

 which, Lake Pangong, was visited by some of 

 the officers in Forsy th's expedition. The pun- 

 dit reports that this latter lake is brackish ut 

 the eastern and fresh at the western extremity. 

 The boundless grassy plains and verdunt hill- 

 sides are the pastures of numberless herds of 

 wild asses, antelopes, and the huge variety of 

 sheep called Otis Ammon. The easternmost 

 lake of the series, the great Tengri Nor, was 

 visited once before by the traveler. North of 

 this he discovered several unknown lakes of 

 great extent, which receive the drainage of 

 the northern range of the Himalayas, which 

 divides the plateau from the valley of Brah- 

 mapootra. He determined astronomically the 

 position of these mountains, as well as of many 

 other points along his course. He visited the 

 gold-mines in the north, whose annual produc- 

 tion does not exceed, he says, 40,000 ; yet 

 judging from the great numbers of golden stat- 

 ues in the temples, and other objects of gold in 

 the country, and the amount of gold-dust car- 

 ried down by the rivers, it is probable that the 

 total production of the country is much greater. 

 On his return he tarried a ccuple of days at 

 Lassa, and followed the Brahmapootra River 

 down for some distance beyond any point be- 

 fore explored, leaving it with a breadth of 500 

 yards and depth of 20 feet, and a slow current. 

 On his way to Assam, being detained for sev- 

 eral months at Tawang, he surveyed the route 

 by this way from Assam to Thibet. The fruits 

 of this journey include a route-survey of 1,200 

 miles, with 276 latitude and 497 altitude data, 

 through a region entirely new. This journey 

 has also established the position of the north- 

 ern chain of the Himalayas, and discovered a 

 new and more easterly route to Southern Asia 

 than any formerly known, besides revealing 

 the existence of a great and remarkable lacus- 

 trine and river system. 



ArsxEALASiA. Signor d'Albertis has made a 

 trip during the past season in the little steamer 

 Neva, placed at his disposition by the colonial 

 government of New South Wales, and an asso- 

 ciation of subscribers, up the Fly River, into the 

 very centre of New Guinea. He took a plan of 

 the river mile by mile, and made notes of the 

 soil and natural conditions along its banks. He 

 found four species of the bird-of-paradise, one 

 of which (the Paradisea apoda) it was sup- 

 posed could not exist in that climate ; also a 

 new genus of Ptilotis, a new species of Gra- 

 cula, a curious new water-serpent, and several 

 birds not reported in the fauna of New Guinea. 

 He made also a large botanical collection, and 

 obtained from the natives many curious fab- 

 rics and utensils, including a large number of 

 stone implements, paddles, martial and festal 

 ornaments, painted and carved skulls, fanci- 

 fully-worked arrow-heads of bone fastened to 

 the shafts with a singular cement, dresses 



