ANNOTATIONS AND ADDITIONS. 79 



executed under the auspices of the Academy of St. Petersburg!! by two 

 distinguished savans, the astronomer George Fuss, and the botanist 

 Bunge. In the year 1832 they accompanied the mission of Greek 

 monks to Pekin, to establish there one of the magnetic stations re- 

 commended by me. The mean height of this part of Gobi does 

 not amount, as had been too hastily inferred from the measurement 

 of neighbouring summits by the Jesuits Gerbillon and Verbiest, to 

 from 7500 to 8000 French (8000 to 8500 English) feet, but only 

 to little more than half that height, or barely 4000 French or 4264 

 English feet. Between Erghi, Durma, and Scharaburguna, the 

 ground is only 2400 French, or 2558 English feet above the level 

 of the sea, or hardly 300 French (320 English) feet higher than 

 the plateau of Madrid. Erghi is situated midway, in lat. 45 31', 

 long. 111 26' E. from Greenwich. There is here a depression of 

 more than 240 miles in breadth, in a SW. and NE. direction. An 

 ancient Mogul tradition marks it as the bottom of a former inland 

 sea. There are found in it reeds and saline plants, mostly of the 

 same kinds as those on the low shores of the Caspian. In this 

 central part of the desert there are small salt lakes, from which salt 

 is carried to China. According to a singular opinion very prevalent 

 among the Moguls, the ocean will one day return and establish its 

 empire anew in Gobi. One is reminded of the Chinese tradition of 

 the litter laJce, in the anterior of Siberia, mentioned by me in an- 

 other work. (Humboldt, Asie Centrale, torn. ii. p. 141 ; Klaproth, 

 Asia Polyglotta, p. 232.) The valley or basin of Kashmeer, so 

 enthusiastically extolled by Bernier, and but too moderately praised 

 by Victor Jacquemont, has also given occasion to great hypsometric 

 exaggerations. By a careful barometrical measurement, Jacque- 

 mont found the height of the Wulur Lake in the valley of Kashmeer, 

 not far from the chief city Sirinagur, 836 toises, or 5346 English feet. 

 Uncertain determinations by the boiling point of water gave Baron 

 Carl von Hiigel a result of 910, and Lieutenant Cunningham only 

 790 toises. (Compare my Asie Centrale, torn. iii. p. 310, with the 

 Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, vol. x. 1841, p. 114.) 

 Kashmeer,- respecting which, in Germany particularly, so much 

 interest has been felt, but the delightfulness of whose climate is 

 considerably impaired by four months of winter snow in the streets 



