32 



NATURE 



\_Nov. 8, 1888 



last twelve years— that of reaching Lhassa in Tibet, and 

 opening to science the lofty plateaus and highlands 

 which separate East Turkestan from India. This time he 

 proposed to start from Russian Turkestan, and his ex- 

 pedition had to be equipped at Vyernyi, on the north of 

 Lake Issyk-kul. He arrived at Tashkend in October, 

 and had left it on October 13 (old style?) on his way to 

 Vyernyi, but he seems not to have reached that town, 

 and must have died on the route, as far as we can judge 

 from the telegram. The new expedition, which promised 

 to be even richer in scientific results than all those which 

 preceded it, was thus prevented. But Prjevalsky has left, 

 in the travelling companions who remained so true to him 

 in his adventurous journeys, a staff of young men who 

 will certainly continue his work, and sooner or later open 

 to science the dreary highlands which have baffled so 

 many a bold explorer. 



N. M. Prjevalsky was only in his fiftieth year, and 

 usually enjoyed robust health. He belonged to a noble 

 family, and was born in 1839, in the Government of 

 Smolensk. At the age of seven he lost his father. During 

 the early years of his life he was trained by his mother 

 (whose maiden name was Karetnikoff), a teacher who 

 stayed in their house, and a brother of his mother. He 

 soon became an eager hunter, and spent all his holidays 

 in hunting in the Smolensk forests with his uncle. This 

 taste he retained during the rest of his life, and he frankly 

 admitted that his first journeys in Central Asia were due as 

 much to his passionate longing for rich hunting-grounds 

 as to his desire to conquer for science the unknown 

 wildernesses. Scientific interest developed more and 

 more during and after his first Central Asian journey, 

 when, accompanied only by three men, and possessing 

 ridiculously small pecuniary means, he crossed the Gobi, 

 reached Pekin, and, pushing westwards and south-west- 

 wards from the Chinese capital, explored the Ordos and the 

 Ala-shan, and reached the Kuku-nor as well as the upper 

 parts of the Yang-tse-kiang— the mysterious Dy-tchu 

 of the Chinese geographers. And yet, when we saw 

 him on his return from that wonderful journey, his eyes 

 glittered and his face radiated chiefly when he was telling 

 us of his achievements as a hunter and a discoverer of the 

 ancestors of our domesticated animals— much more than 

 when he was talking of his geographical discoveries, about 

 which he always was, in fact, remarkably modest. 



He received his first school education in the Smolensk 

 Gymnasium, but he soon left this institution, and entered 

 in 1855 an infantry regiment as a subaltern. Next year 

 he became an officer, and five years later he entered 

 the Academy of the General Staff. His love for geo- 

 graphical exploration had been to some extent developed 

 by that time, and the dissertation he wrote on leaving the 

 .Academy was upon the Amur region, which was much 

 spoken of in Russia. But he had not yet the means of 

 satisfying his desire for travel, and he was compelled to 

 return to his regiment and take part in the suppression of 

 the Polish insurrection. He soon withdrew from active 

 military service, and accepted the position of teacher of 

 geography at a Warsaw Gymnasium, devoting his leisure 

 hours to studies in natural history. It was only in 1867 that 

 he was admitted into the General Staff and sent to Irkutsk, 

 whence he immediately started for the exploration of thd 

 very little known highlands on the banks of the Usuri — 

 the great southern tributary of the Amur. Here he found 

 a wide field for exploration and hunting, and wrote a book 

 on the Usuri region (published in 1869), partly of an 

 ethnographical character. The Geographical Society 

 awarded him for this book only a small silver medal ; 

 and, when Prjevalsky applied for means to enable him to 

 explore Southern Mongolia, the Society was anything but 

 generous in its response. Had it not been for his own 

 small economies — he always lived a very simple life — and 

 for the help he received from the then Russian Ambas- 

 sador at Pekin (M. V'langalli), himself an explorer of 



Mongolia, Prjevalsky could hardly have started on that 

 remarkable journey. When he began the exploration of 

 the land of the Tangutes, he possessed only 178 roubles 

 (about £1^ ; and when he reached, with his three com- 

 panions, the sources of the Yang-tse-kiang, after having 

 crossed the province of Han-su, the Tsaidam, and part 

 of Northern Tibet, he had only 10 roubles left, and his 

 camels were quite exhausted. The whole expedition, 

 which lasted thirty-four months (November 1870 to Sep- 

 tember 1873), had cost only 6000 roubles; yet this un- 

 doubtedly was the most remarkable journey that had been 

 made in Asia in the nineteenth century. Prjevalsky 

 proved that, for resolute and enduring men, travelling on 

 the Central Asian plateaus was much easier than had 

 been supposed. He twice crossed the Gobi, reached 

 the Kuku-nor, penetrated as far south-west as the 

 spot where the Yang-tse-kiang rises from the confluence 

 of the Mur-usu and the Nantchitai River, and returned 

 with exceedingly rich zoological and botanical collections, 

 after having travelled no less than 7320 miles across 

 formerly quite unknown deserts and highlands. The 

 work in which he embodied the results of that wonderful 

 journey, " Mongolia and the Land of the Tangutes," was 

 immediately translated into all civilized languages. The 

 Russian Geographical Society hastened to present him 

 with its great Constantine Medal, and most of the Geo- 

 graphical Societies all over Europe congratulated him 

 on his discoveries, and awarded him medals, honorary 

 diplomas, and the like. 



Prjevalsky, in the meantime, was trying to find the 

 means for continuing his explorations ; but it was only in 

 1876 that he succeeded in obtaining from the Ministry of 

 War the 25,000 roubles which were necessary to enable 

 him to push as far as Lob-nor. His aim was not only to 

 rediscover the basin of the Tarim and the great lake of 

 East Turkestan, which had not been visited by any 

 European from the time of Marco Polo ; he desired to 

 cross East Turkestan and the northern plateaus of 

 Tibet, and to reach Lhassa. This time he started 

 from Turkestan, and, following the upper part of the 

 Hi River (the Kunges), he reached Kurla in East 

 Turkestan, whence he crossed the desert and reached the 

 Lob-nor. The great lake was thus rediscovered. But it 

 was impossible to reach Lhassa by this route, and 

 Prjevalsky returned to Kulja, and thence to the Rus- 

 sian post Zaisan. His aim was to penetrate into 

 Tibet via Hami, the Tsaidam, and the sources of the 

 Blue River. So he started again, from Zaisan to Gutchen. 

 Unhappily, the skin disease of the steppes {priiritis scroti) 

 overtook him, and he was compelled to return from 

 Gutchen. Still, next March, he was again on his way to 

 Lhassa, when the frontier authorities ordered him to post- 

 pone his expedition. He then returned to St. Petersburg. 



The Lob-nor journey was made in 1 877, and although 

 only eleven years have elapsed since, it is almost impos- 

 sible now to realize the imperfection of our knowledge of 

 Central Asia at that time. When it became known that 

 Prjevalsky had visited the Lob-nor, Baron Richthofen 

 contested the fact, and maintained that the lake which 

 receives the Tarim must be situated further north and due 

 east from the mouth of the Ughen-daria ; while now Lob- 

 nor is perfectly well known. As to the natural history col- 

 lections which were brought in from this second journey, 

 they were even more valuable than those gatherea during 

 the first journey. They gave us a clear insight into the flora 

 and fauna of those parts of East Turkestan ; while the 

 barometrical measurements enabled us to form, for the 

 first time, a correct idea as to the characters of the Tarim 

 depression of the great Central Asian plateau. It was 

 also from this journey that Prjevalsky brought the wild 

 camel — the ancestor of the domesticated species. 



As soon as he was back at St. Petersburg, Prjevalsky 

 hastened to prepare for a new journey ; and after 

 having written a short account of his Lob-nor journey, 



