Oct 5. 1876J 



NATURE 



515 



mountains covered with snow, is surrounded by beautiful fir and 

 other trees. We threw out our dredge but without success, 

 neither did we see any large game, e.s^., steinbok or maral. The 

 maral is a kind of stag entirely different from ours, with im- 

 mense antlers, which a'-e very rarely to be obtained, as they are 

 considered a delicacy by the Chinese, who eat these antlers 

 before they are quite developed, i.e., in their soft, hairy state. 

 For a pair of antlers scarcely eight inches high, the Kirghiz 

 asked twenty rubles. 



" On May 17 we left Lepsa and turned again towards the 

 lake Ala Kul, this time to its east side. While crossing 

 the height that closes the valley of Lepsa on the north, we 

 mounted a peak whence we had a most beautiful view, especially 

 of the high distant Ala Tau with its cones covered with eternal 

 snow. On the i8th we descended into the steppe after having 

 once more camped in yurts upon the mountains ; it began to be 

 very warm. The road leads through the steppe ; it is for the 

 greater part covered with reeds, and shows everywhere traces of 

 boars, so we guessed to be near the lake, which we reached to- 

 wards night. Numerous cranes, ducks, pelican?, gulls, and 

 other water-fowl and moor-fowl animated the shore. 



" On the 19th our road led through a grass-steppe covered with 

 hemlock and rhubarb, and interspersed with bare alkali-soil ; 

 near the rivers were numerous ' auls ' of the Kirghiz, with 

 herds of cattle, and here and there showing soa^e cultivition 

 rendered possible by artificial irrigation ; the Kirghiz understand 

 perfectly the methods of damming and irrigating. Towards 

 evening we reached the village Urdshar inhabited by Cossacks 

 and Tartars, and continued our journey on the 20tb, accom- 

 panied by a picket of twelve Cossacks from Bagti, who for ten 

 days had been awaiting our arrival. The steppe was here by 

 no means monotonous, it was even rendered picturesque by the 

 view of snowy mountains around. Perhaps larks, m six or 

 seven varieties, are the commonest birds here, besides these 

 the black-headed wag-tail, the red-throated tit-lark, steppe-fowl, 

 bustards, and cranes : of these mostly grus virgo. Wild geese 

 (Amtr cinereus) animate the steppe in great numbers, wherever 

 there is stagnant water. We find our h( use-sparrow rear the 

 solitary yurt camp, and the swallow {Hirundo rustica) trie~ con- 

 tinually to build her nest on the top ring of the yurt. Where 

 the grass is higher the quail is to be seen, and our cuckoo 

 belongs to those birds which first greet the early morn. Every- 

 where we found the Charadrius gregarius single ; the females 

 already bringing out their young ones, are so tame that they 

 allow you to approach within ten steps. Here we saw for the 

 first time the saiga antelopes ; they were unfortunately loo shy 

 and kept out of range. Late at night we arrived in Bagti, a clean 

 but small military village, with barracks and soldier's houses ; 

 on May 21 we entered the Celestial empire, and advanced 

 towards Tschugutschak, only twenty-one versts from Bagti. 

 We passed over a hillock and the town was lying beioiC us ; we 

 saw the brown clay walls of low. Hat houses, little differing in 

 colour from the steppe. We passed through the narrow streets, 

 and the many-cornerel bazaar (pa-tially roofed) to the houses of 

 the Governor-general (Dschansun) Djun, the great Barrack ; all 

 along our road we were followed by theastonished-looking faces of 

 strange, queer figures. At the gate we had to get off our hor.es 

 and, according to Chinese custom, ask permission to enter ; 

 we were then received at the hall-door by an elderly gentle- 

 man of about fifty, and introduced to his general. It was 

 very hard to keep up a conversation, as every word had to 

 be translated from Chinese into Kirgh sian, Russian, and 

 German, and vice vend; on the whole the old gentleman treated 

 us with the well-known speeches of Chinese politeness,' placing 

 everything at our disposal, &c. We went to see the bazaar, 

 which contained little really Chinese ware, and so we bought 

 nothing worth mentioning ; from there we went into the quarter 

 of the Tartars and had a very good dinner with a rich Tartar, 

 whose very pretty wife, picturesquely ores-ed, presided. Tamar 

 Bey, our Kirghibian friend, a Mahometan, had to remain out- 

 side. The governor kindly offered to provide night-quarters but 

 we declined, and proceeded on our journey before evening ; we 

 were told that the nearest yurts were only eighteen versts dis- 

 tant, and so I too determined to ride in spite of my great fatigue. 

 Unfortunately the yurts were thirty versts distant instead of 

 eighteen, moreover the Cossack who accompanied me lost his 

 way and so we arrived after having done thirty-five versts. 



•'We rested now for thirty-six hours and then went on with 

 telegas, but could not get on very quickly on account of the 

 intense heat (ioc° F. at noon in the sun and 108° F. in the 

 yurt). 



" The road to Saissan led over a steppe more than 3000 fe^t 

 high, bordered on both sides by mountain ranges. We were still 

 on Chinese territory, yet near small, rapid mountain streams, we 

 passed here and there yurt camps of the Kirghiz and Kalmucks, 

 Russian subjects who pasture their herds quietly on Chinese 

 ground and grow oats and rye by help of Chinese irrigation ; 

 they are unmolested by the owners of the land or the 'Tungans,' 

 who are mortally afraid of everything called Russian. Late in 

 the evening of May 24 we reached a plateau high up in the 

 mountains, and rested the whole of the 25th, enjoying the cool 

 refreshing mountain air. The place is called Bugutusai, and is 

 a frontier picket. During summer there are twenty-five Cossacks 

 s'ationed here who have to chastise immediately any inroads of 

 the * Tungans.' There is always a post on a pretty high moun- 

 tain, whence there is a good view far into China, as far as the 

 snow-covered heights of the Urkandscha mountains. Not far 

 from there are great heaps of stones, the remains of Chinese 

 frontier posts, the garrisons of whiqh were killed this spring by the 

 Tungans. Near our place was a small river in which were crab- 

 like animals. Towards evening came Dr. Pander from Saissan ; 

 he is the son of the famous anatomist who, together with d'Alton, 

 published valuable atlases ; besides refreshments he brought 

 letters, the first which we obtained since leaving St. Petersburg. 

 We starte.1 again early on the morning of the 26th, and descended 

 into a plateau bordered for about fifty versts by the northernmost 

 range of the Tarbagatai. The steppe consisted nearly through- 

 out of gravel and stony soil hardly covered with plants ; it was 

 the most monotonous steppe we had seen so far wth the excep- 

 tion of the pure salt steppe. The mountains by which it was 

 surrounded gave it the appearance of a pleasant picture, but the 

 heights danced in the heated air in a most fantastic way. After 

 having crossed the plateau we found Aarantassas awaiting us ; 

 they brought us towards evening into Saissan, where we were 

 most hospitably received in the house of Major Techanoff, the 

 chief of the district who had accompanied us hither from Lepsa. 

 The road was very good, but leads uninterruptedly through bare 

 ravines in the fantastically weathered slate and green but treeless 

 cones of mountains down into the steppe of the black Irtish, 

 bordered at the horizon by the dim snowy heights of the AltaL 

 As soon as we reached the plain we found ourselves on the 

 regular post-line with i's verst poles. Saissan is only a military 

 post and consists of small neat-looking houses, broad streets with 

 canals and planted with willows. It is an important place fo: 

 the trade with China, and will be more important alter being 

 made a city. Even now large camel caravans pass through 

 Saissan providing the Chinese army with flour ; therefore there 

 is more life here than is elsewhere to be found in this region." 



vv 



dition 



THE ''CHALLENGER" EXPEDITION 



E publish with pleasure the following additional 

 testimony to the value of the Challenger Expe- 



To the Editor of '' Natttre." 



20, Palmerston Place, Edinburgh, October 2, 1876. 

 Dear Sir, — Perhaps you will kindly allow me through your 

 pages to make known to my colleagues of the Challenger Expe- 

 dition the accompanying gratifying resolution passed at the late 

 meeting of the Naturalists and Physicians of Germany. 

 Believe me, yours very faithfully, 



C. Wyville Thomson. 



To Sir Wyville Thomson, Professor of Zoology at the University^ 

 Edinburgh. 



Hamburg, September «i, 1876. 



The forty-ninth meeting of German Naturalists and Physicians, 

 the first which has taken place since the return of the expedition 

 of the Challengtr, has, in its general session of September 20, 

 unanimously resolved to express its recognition and thanks to 

 the promoters and to the members of this expedition, by which 

 the knowledge of the physical and biological conditions of th« 

 ocean has been so greatly extended. 



We have the honour to commimicate to you this resolution by 

 forwarding the accompanying extract from the Protocol, and 

 pray you to make it known to all concerned. 



The Presidents of the Forty-ninth Meeting of German Natu- 

 ralists and Physicians, 



Senator Kirchenpauer, 

 Dr. Da.nzeu 



