GEOGRAPHICAL PROGRESS AND DISCOVERY. 



359 



and of the Yenisei by a canal. The first sur- 

 vey was made in 1875. This last year another 

 research has'been made with reference to the 

 scheme with exceedingly favorable results. 

 Baron Aminof, in an examination of the water- 

 sheds of the Ob and Yenisei Rivers, ascended 

 the Ozerna, the Lomovat, and the Jazeva Riv- 

 ers, crossed over to Kass Lake, and descended 

 the Great and Little Kass Rivers to the Yenisei. 

 The only difficulties in navigation were found 

 in the Jazeva and the upper part of the Little 

 Kass, which may be made navigable by con- 

 structing locks, if it is found desirable to make 

 a connection between the two river systems. 

 The only cutting necessary would be for 2 

 miles besides straightening and cleaning the 

 beds of the streams in certain places. The 

 materials for such a work are found on the 

 spot, and the labor would be inconsiderable. 



Maief, in an excursion from Taskkend, en- 

 tered the mountains south of Bokhara at Guyar, 

 passing by the route which leads to the popu- 

 lous Kishlak of Koristan, exploring the un- 

 known valleys of the Kerchak-Daria and Ko- 

 ristan-Daria. He reconnoitered also the im- 

 portant road leading to Shirabad through the 

 Tengi-Davan Pass, and ascended the valley in 

 which is the Kishlak of Kakaity as far as Re- 

 gar and Sar-i-Jui, returning to Shahr-i-Sebz 

 by the difficult route followed by Oshanin, 

 through the Kishlaks Sengri-Dag, Batch, Tash- 

 Kurgan, and Yakobak. 



The Russian geologist Mushketof descended 

 to Kara-Kol from the north. His extended 

 examination of the geological formation of the 

 Pamir and Alai ranges leads him to deny the 

 existence of the meridional range of the Bolor. 

 The heights, rising to 20,000 feet, observed 

 from a distance by Gordon, Kostenko, and 

 Shaw, would seem to be enormous ridges suc- 

 ceeding one another, but belonging to different 

 ranges ; he holds that the diorite mountains of 

 the Trans- Alai, running east from Kara-Kol, 

 and the syenite range of south Khokand, run- 

 ning east-northeast, impinge on the diabasic 

 chain of Ferghana, producing an enormous cu- 

 mulation of mountain masses, which is further 

 augmented by its collision with the granitic 

 Pamir range, which stretches northeastward. 

 This colossal heap of snowy mountains may 

 easily present the appearance, viewed from afar 

 from the east, as Gordon looked upon it, or 

 from the west, as it was seen by Kostenko, of 

 a continuous, homogeneous north and south 

 range. The geological formation of the Pamir 

 and Alai Mountains is determined by Mush- 

 ketof to be principally granite, metamorphic 

 clay, and mica, overlaid with triassic strata. 

 The direction of the granitic elevations is ap- 

 proximately the general one of the Tian-Shan, 

 east-northeast. North of Pamir the granite 

 formation is succeeded by diorite in the Trans- 

 Alaian Mountains. Farther north, secondary 

 formations predominate, with large diluvial ac- 

 cumulations. Another geological exploration 

 was made in the Alai and Trans- Alai Moun- 



tains by Severtsof in the fall of 1877. He 

 followed up the river Kurshab-Gulcha-Su or 

 Taldyk-Su, and crossed the Shart Pass (12,600 

 feet), from the base of which issues the Kok- 

 bulak River, a tributary of the Kizyl-Su, attain- 

 ing the Pamir plateau (13,420 feet above sea- 

 level, the Alai steppe on the north having the 

 altitude of 10,100 feet), by way of the Kizyi 

 Yart Pass. The limit of perpetual snow in 

 this, region he fixed at 15,000 feet. Severtsof 

 reached the conclusion that the Trans-Alai 

 Mountains are not one continuous range, but 

 a series of ranges broken by hollows and val- 

 leys, of which two are visible from the Alai, 

 one eastward toward Kara-Kol, including the 

 Kizyl Yart Pass, and one toward the Muk-Su, 

 including the pass of Altanindara. These hol- 

 lows divide three masses of elevation, of which 

 the middle one with Kaufmann Peak is the 

 highest, with 22,300 feet elevation. The Gu- 

 rumdirn elevation, east of the Kezyl Yart, 

 forms one of the principal water partings of the 

 Pamir, and consists of a series of peaks 17,000 

 to 20,000 feet in height. 



In a topographical reconnaissance, Colonel 

 Griinwald, of the Russian army, examined the 

 two passes Turgat and Terekti, which lead 

 into Kashgar, and also explored the course of 

 the Aksai from its rise to the mouth of the 

 Terekti Creek. The route over Turgat Pass 

 was entirely practicable, and that over Terekti 

 needed only an improvement for a few miles 

 on the Kashgar side. 



The existence of a region of great humidity, 

 surrounding the Thibetan plateau on its eastern 

 and northeastern sides, observed in the north 

 by Prjevalsky while ascending the mountains 

 southwest of Tajing, and on the eastern side 

 by the Pre Armand David, while residing at 

 Mupin, north of Ching-too-foo, and by Cooper 

 when penetrating from China into eastern Thi- 

 bet, has received new confirmation from the 

 observations of Captain Gill during a journey 

 in eastern China. He found the vegetation 

 on the eastern side of the Thibetan plateau, 

 between the valleys of Sung-pan and Ling- 

 ngan, at the northern limit of the Se-chuen 

 Province, wonderfully moist and luxuriant, and 

 bearing a semi-tropical character. He described 

 the mountainous province of Se-chuen as per- 

 haps the most beautiful and fruitful in the Chi- 

 nese Empire. Captain Gill argues that the 

 Chinese mountains must be considered as con- 

 nected with the Himalayan system through 

 the lofty plateau, all of it over 12,000 feet in 

 altitude, which runs from west of Lhasa with 

 a northward sweep up to the Chinese province 

 of Kan-su. In the mountains from Yun-nan 

 to the north of Se-chuen are the villages of the 

 Mantzu or original inhabitants of the country, 

 who were only recently expelled from the val- 

 leys by the Chinese. There are twenty tribes 

 of these people, each governed by a king, or 

 in one instance a queen ; they live by agricul- 

 ture and cattle-raising. Captain Gill took a 

 full series of observations of altitude in the 



