xlii AUTHOR'S PREFACE. 



Nevertheless this terra incognita, exceeding in 

 extent the whole of Eastern Europe, situated in 

 the centre of the greatest of all the continents, at 

 a higher elevation above the level of the sea than 

 any other country on the face of the globe, with its 

 gigantic mountain ranges and boundless deserts, 

 presents from a scientific point of view grand and 

 varied fields of research. Here the naturalist and 

 the geographer may pursue their respective studies 

 over a wide area. But great as are the attractions of 

 this unknown region to the traveller, its difficulties 

 may well appal him. On the one hand, the deserts, 

 with all their accompanying terrors — hurricanes, lack 

 of water, burning heat and piercing cold, must be 

 encountered ; on the other, a suspicious and bar- 

 barous people, either covertly or openly hostile to 

 Europeans. 



For three consecutive years we faced the difficul- 

 ties of travel in the wild countries of Asia, and only 

 owing to unusual good fortune attained our object 

 of penetrating to Lake Koko-nor and to the upper 

 course of the Blue River (Yang-tse-Kiang) in 

 Northern Tibet. 



Good fortune, I repeat, never forsook me through- 

 out my journey, from beginning to end. In my 

 young companion, Michail Alexandrovitch Pyltseff, 

 I had an active and zealous assistant, whose energy 

 never failed in the most adverse circumstances ; whilst 

 the two Trans-Baikal Cossacks, Pamphile Chebayeff 

 and Dondok Irinchinoff, who accompanied us in the 

 second and third )cars of our travels, were brave 



