AUTHOR'S PREFACE. 



Four years ago, thanks to the suggestion of the 

 Imperial Geographical Society, warmly seconded by 

 the Minister of War, whose intelligent co-operation 

 in all scientific matters is so well known, I was ap- 

 pointed commander of an expedition to Northern 

 China, with the view of exploring those remote 

 regions of the Celestial Empire, about which our 

 knowledge is of the most limited and fragmentary 

 kind, derived for the most part from Chinese litera- 

 ture, from the descriptions of the great thirteenth- 

 century traveller — Marco Polo, and from the nar- 

 ratives of the few missionaries who have from 

 time to time gained access to these countries. But 

 such facts as are supplied by all these sources of 

 information are so vague and inaccurate that the 

 whole of Eastern High Asia, from the mountains of 

 Siberia on the north to the Himalyas on the sou h, 

 and from the Pamir to China Proper, is as little 

 explored as Central Africa or the interior of New 

 Holland. Even the orography of this vast plateau 

 is most imperfectly known, and as to its physical 

 nature — i.e. its geology, climate, flora, and fauna — we 

 are almost entirely ignorant. 



