PKOJECTED SCHEMES. 367 



Trade, did me the honour to make me some proposals during 

 his stay in Paris. ... I shall be delighted to accept any pro- 

 positions that may be made to me by Government through an 

 official channel, provided I am furnished with, geographical 

 details concerning the districts to be explored. It will cost 

 me a great deal to give up all hope of visiting the banks 

 of the Granges, the home of the banana and the palm. I am 

 now forty-two years of age, and I should be glad to undertake 

 an expedition that would occupy about seven or eight years,, 

 but I should be loth to renounce visiting the tropical regions 

 of Asia, unless I had the prospect of a very extensive and com- 

 prehensive journey. I should be less attracted by the Caucasus 

 than by Lake Baikal and the volcanoes in the peninsula of 

 Kamtschatka. Will it not be possible to get as far as Samar- 

 cand, Cabul, and Cashmere ? Must I lose all chance of ascer- 

 taining the height of Mustag or the plateau of Shamo ? Is 

 there a person in the Russian Empire who has visited Lhassa 

 or Thibet by any other than the ordinary route of Teheran,, 

 Casween, and Herat, or else via Calcutta ? Is Russia at war with 

 all the nations along her southern frontier, and can nothing be 

 done except amid the tumult of arms ? An expedition of this 

 character, on account of the extent of country traversed, would 

 doubtless yield a vast accession of data in various branches of 

 science ; in geography with regard to the superposition of rocks, 

 the identity of formations, and the distribution of vegetation ; 

 in meteorology, the theory of magnetism (inclination of the 

 needle, declination, intensity of force, hourly variations), and 

 in experiments with the pendulum. The study of the various 

 races of men, their language one of the most enduring 

 monuments of ancient civilisation the possibility of opening 

 up a road to commerce from the south , together with a thousand 

 other kindred subjects, will engage our earnest attention. In 

 order to grasp at once the field of operation, I should like 

 to traverse first the whole of Asia, under latitudes from 58^ 

 to 60, passing through lekaterinbourg, Tobolsk, leniseisk, 

 and lakoutsk, to the volcanoes in Kamtschatka and the shores 

 of the Pacific. As these districts are all inclined towards the 

 north, the most recent formations will be exposed to view ; in 

 returning, it would be desirable to select the route under the 



