310 



GEOGRAPHICAL PROGRESS AND DISCOVERY. 



flora and fauna are extremely poor. Khoten 

 has an elevation of 4,100 feet, and the conflu- 

 ence of the Khoten and the Tarim 2,800, twelve 

 miles below the junction of the Yarkand and 

 Aksu darjas. Here the Tarim has a width of 

 about 200 yards at low water, and a depth of 

 not less than five feet. The whole of the 

 Tarim is navigable for small river-steamers 

 from the confluence of its upper waters to 

 Lob Nor. The first inhabited parts of the 

 Aksu oasis occur on the left bank of its river, 

 eighteen miles from the ford across the Tarim, 

 coming from Khoten, and it is exactly sixty- 

 six miles farther to the town of Aksu. The 

 Aksu oasis has a population of 56,000 families, 

 according to native information, and is the 

 most fertile part of Kashgaria. 



Some parts of Thibet not explored by Gen. 

 Prejevalski, seem to have been visited by Mr. 

 A. D. Carey, of the Bombay civil service, who 

 is making a two years' journey through that 

 part of Asia, accompanied by Mr. A. Dalgleish 

 as interpreter. They left India in May, 1885, 

 and marched through the hills to Ladak. The 

 plan was to travel eastward into Northern 

 Thibet as far as the Mangtsa lake, and then 

 turning northward to go on to the plains of 

 Turkistan near Kiria. In carrying out this 

 plan the travelers passed over more than 300 

 miles believed not to have been previously 

 visited by Europeans. The height of one of 

 the passes crossed was estimated at 19,000 feet. 

 From Khoten the Khoten river was followed 

 to its junction with the Tarim, then that river 

 to Sarik, and from there the travelers crossed 

 the desert to Shah-yar and Kuchar. Thence 

 the Tarim was followed to a point where it 

 turns southward to Lake Lob, and after some 

 delay the travelers followed it on to the lake, 

 thus exploring its entire course. 



The country about is flat and reedy, and the 

 people are poor and destitute. Mr. Carey was 

 everywhere kindly received a contrast to the 

 treatment encountered by Gen. Prejevalski. 

 After leaving Lob Nor in April, 1886, he 

 crossed the Altyn and Chiman mountains, and 

 reached the foot of a high chain supposed to 

 be the true Kuen-Lun. To the eastward a pass 

 was found leading to the valley of the Machu, 

 the head source of the Yang-tse-kiang. Want 

 of supplies prevented the travelers from follow- 

 ing the Machu very far. In the subsequent 

 journey they saw a good deal of the nomadic 

 Kalmuks and Mongols in the valleys of Tsai- 

 dam. Though rather inhospitable, they were 

 not hostile; they often refused to part with 

 food or grain for money. On the way from 

 Chaklik to the point where the Shassa track was 

 struck, a journey of eighty-two days, not a 

 single human being was met with. 



Several journeys, undertaken by native ex- 

 plorers to solve the problems of the Sanpo and 

 Lut-se-kiang, have been unsuccessful ; but it 

 seems probable from what is known that the 

 Sanpo flows into the Brahmaputra, and that 

 the Lut-se-kiang is the upper part of the Irra- 



wadi. Col. Woodthorpe has been busied v/ith 

 extensive surveys in Burmah, and Mr. Mac- 

 Carthyhas made some explorations in Siam. 



Mr. G. N. Potanin returned to St. Peters- 

 burg in the spring after his three years' ex- 

 plorations in Mongolia. At the end of 1886 

 he crossed the Desert of Gobi to Kiakhta and 

 Irkutsk, following the course of the river 

 Ezsin. In its lower part it divides into two 

 streams, the eastern forming the half-dried 

 lake Sugu-nor, while the western flows into 

 the great salt lake Gushun-nor, situated in a 

 desert where neither water nor grass is found 

 for fifty miles. M. Potanin's companion, M. 

 Beresovski, remained behind to increase his 

 already large natural history collection. M. 

 Potanin took home more than 1,500 botanical 

 specimens and 15,000 insects, with photographs 

 and ethnological objects. M. Skassi, a mem- 

 ber of the party, surveyed 4,000 miles of coun- 

 try, and determined by astronomical observa- 

 tions the position of more than sixty points. 



Three English travelers, Messrs. James, 

 Younghusband, and Fulford, have succeeded 

 in finding the sources of the western Sungari. 

 They started from Mookdeu for the valley of 

 the Jalu, intending to go to the boundary 

 mountains of Corea and Manchuria. But the 

 way was so difficult that they turned toward 

 the north into a side valley, and, having crossed 

 the mountains by a pass 900 metres high, they 

 followed the He-ho or Black river to the Sun- 

 gari, the western fork of which they traced to 

 its source in the Peistau or White mountains. 

 The highest point was found to be about 2,500 

 metres; it has heretofore been estimated at 

 from 3,000 to 4,000. There are no glaciers, 

 but the snow lies in the ravines throughout 

 the year. Near by are the sources of the Jalu 

 and the Tumen, the river on the border of 

 Corea. They attempted to reach it, but find- 

 ing the mountains impassable turned north- 

 ward to Kirin, the capital of Chinese Manchu- 

 ria. They afterward traveled through northern 

 and eastern Manchuria, their whole journey ex- 

 tending over more than 3,000 miles. They 

 found the people civil and kind, but the coun- 

 try is overrun with brigands. The administra- 

 tion is too weak to maintain an efficient police 

 system, and probably order can only be intro- 

 duced by Chinese authority. The Manchu 

 Tartars are fast losing their language, spoken 

 and written, and adopting the Chinese. This 

 substitution of a complicated hieroglyphic sys- 

 tem for a simple alphabet forms an instance of 

 national retrogression unparalleled in modern 

 times. The people, say the travelers, are de- 

 moralized with idleness; for every man be- 

 longing to the higher classes that can draw a 

 bow receives two taels a month, and land rent 

 free, as compensation for training with the 

 militia twice a year. The country is rich in 

 gold, silver, iron, coal, furs, and silk. Large 

 quantities of opium are raised, which find a 

 market in China. 



The English Government has given up its 



