AUTHOR'S PREFACE. xliii 



and Indefatigable men, who served the expedition 

 faithfully and loyally. I should also mention with 

 equal gratitude the name of our late envoy at Peking 

 — Major-General Alexander Gregorievitch Vlangali ; 

 for he was chiefly instrumental in organising the 

 expedition, and he was its warmest supporter from 

 first to last. 



But although fortunate in the moral support I 

 received, on the other hand the material resources 

 of our expedition were extremely inadequate, and 

 this circumstance impaired its efficiency. To say 

 nothing of the privations which we experienced on 

 the journey, entirely owing to the want of money, 

 we were unable to provide ourselves even with the 

 requisite good instruments for taking observations. 

 For instance, we had only one mountain barometer, 

 which soon broke, and I was obliged to have re- 

 course to the ordinary Reaumur thermometer to 

 determine heights by boiling water,^ obtaining less 

 accurate results ; for magnetic observations луе had 

 nothing but a common compass adapted for this 

 purpose at the observatory of Peking. In fact, 

 our outfit, even of the most necessary instruments 

 for scientific observations, was of the most meagre 

 description. 



In the course of nearly three years,^ in traversing 



' Parrot's thermometer, which I took with me from St. Peters- 

 burg for measuring akitudes, broke during the journey through Siberia ; 

 however, in such a journey as ours, this instrument would have been 

 too troublesome, and almost impossible to protect from breakage. 



* From November 29, 1870, to October i, 1873, '-e. from the day 

 of our departure from Kiakhta to the day of our return to that place. 



