152 



me with astonishment is the perfect famiharity and 

 freshness of recollection of every detail which seems 

 to confer on you in some degree the attribute of 

 ubiquity on the surface of this ovir planet — so 

 vividly present does the picture of its various regions 

 seem to be in your imagination and so completely 

 do you succeed in making it so to that of your 

 readers. 



The account of the Auriferous and Platiniferous 

 deposits in the Ural and the zone in 56 lat. has also 

 very much interested me as well as the curious facts 

 respecting the distribution of the Grecian germs in 

 those regions. I could not forbear translating and 

 sending to the ,, Athenaeum" (the best of our literary 

 and scientific periodicals) the singular account of the 

 „monstre" of Taschkow Targanka — (citing of course 

 your work as the source of the history) — in vol III. 

 p. 597. 



The idea of availing ourselves of the information 

 contained in the works of Chinese geographers for 

 the purpose of improving our geographical knowledge 

 of Central Asia, appears to me as happy as it is likely 

 to prove fertile — especially now that the literature of 

 that singular country is becoming more accessible daily 

 by the importation of Chinese books. — What you have 

 stated respecting the magnetic chariots and hodometers 

 of the Emperor Tching-wang — if you can entirely rely 

 on your authority gives a far higher idea of the 

 ancient civihsation of China than any other fact which 

 has yet been produced. 



In a word, I must congratulate you on the ap- 

 pearance of this work as on another great achieve- 



