GEOGRAPHICAL PROGRESS AND DISCOVERY. 



327 



as the tame ones, but their hair was shorter 

 and thicker. Prjevalsky intended, after re- 

 maining a while on the Knnge, the right-hand 

 affluent of the Hi, to strike out for Thibet from 

 Kuldja, passing through Chinese territory. 



Gregor N. Potanin, another Russian travel- 

 er, made a journey through the Altai moun- 

 tains in the autumn of 1876. Starting from the 

 Zaisan post, he reached Bulun-Tokhoi in 17 

 days; following the eastern shore of the Uli- 

 ungur lake, and crossing the deep and rapid 

 Black Irtish at Durbeljin, he reached the Kran 

 on the 29th of August, where the grain had 

 already been harvested and hoar-frosts had set 

 in. The valley of the Kran furnishes the Kir- 

 ghiz with corn, and also produces opium. Af- 

 ter some trouble with the Chinese authorities 

 of the town of Tulta and with the priests of 

 the neighboring monastery of Phara-Sume, the 

 party proceeded through the valley of the Kan- 

 dagatai, and crossed the Altai by the pass of 

 Urmogaity (9,000 feet), which is south of the 

 Jamaty pass. They came across a mountain 

 lake, the Dann-Kul, which gives rise to the Ku- 

 tan, an affluent of the river Kobdo. They met 

 with Kise Kirghiz, who had first crossed the 

 Altai seven years before, as far as the Tal Nor, 

 which is within three or four days' march from 

 the town of Kobdo. The country east of the 

 Urmogaity is a hilly table-land, containing many 

 lakes, which descends to the east in terraces sep- 

 arated by mountain ranges. The last of these, 

 running north and south, divides the valley of 

 the Dyaliun river, which flows into the Buyan- 

 tu, from the valley in which is situated the 

 town of Kobdo. This range was passed by the 

 Teretky-asu pass (10,000 feet). A route survey 

 was made, with determinations of three latitudes 

 and numerous altitudes. The party spent the 

 winter in Kobdo. They set out again toward 

 the end of March, 1877, the baggage being sent 

 direct to Lan-chow. Messrs. Potanin and Ra- 

 failof took the road to Hami over the Ektag 

 Altai range, by way of the Ulan Daban pass, 

 and by Barkul. From Hami they passed north- 

 ward, crossing the Tian-Shan by the pass over 

 which Sosnovsky had previously gone, and 

 then, turning to the east, they skirted the east- 

 ern prolongation of the Tian-Shan, which 

 range is covered by perpetual snow ; and then 

 turning their course northward again, they 

 traversed the Gobi desert, striking the Adjai- 

 Vogdo, a spur of the Altai mountains, which 

 they crossed by the Kernuru-Davan pass, be- 

 tween the valleys of the Saksa and Tsitsirin- 

 Gol ; then crossing the Taimir-Ola chain, they 

 reached Uliassutai on the 25th of July. A large 

 collection of the flora of the Altai and Tian- 

 Shan was made ; the flora of the plains, howev- 

 er, was found to be excessively meagre. The 

 next excursion was to be to the sources of the 

 Yenisei, lakes Kossogol and Ubsa, and then, by 

 way of the Chui river, to Biisk. 



M. de Ujfalvy, of Hungarian birth, a profess- 

 or in the Lyceum Henri IV. in Paris, a schol- 

 ar profoundly versed in the ethnography and 



linguistics of Asiatic races, is engaged in a pro- 

 longed study of the region which was the cra- 

 dle of our race. He intends to visit Bokhara, 

 Khokand, Kashgar, and the Pamir. During 

 a sojourn in Russia he has studied some inter- 

 esting peoples of the Magyar type, the largest 

 of which tribes are the Bashkirs. He was 

 greatly interested in the Galchas of the valley 

 of Sarafshan, who differ materially from the 

 Tadshiks. The Galchas, the inhabitants of Ka- 

 rategin, Darvas, Shinyan, and Badakshan, as 

 well as the dwellers on the Sari-Kul, are all 

 of Eranian origin; they are the descendants 

 of the trans-Oxanian tribes, which, isolated in 

 inaccessible mountain valleys, have preserved 

 the pure Aryan type from the earliest times. 



By the account of the abbe Desgodin, who, 

 in the quality of a missionary, has had excep- 

 tional opportunities to study the geography 

 of Thibet, the identity of the Yarkio-tsangpo 

 with the Brahmaputra is confirmed. The head 

 of the Irrawaddy cannot be above latitude 30 

 N. He thinks that the Himalayas cannot ex- 

 tend farther east than longitude 94 or 95 E., 

 beyond which limit two chains, which run to 

 the extremity of the Indo-Chinese peninsula, 

 commence in latitude 84 or 35 N., between 

 the Kinsha and Lan-tsang, and the latter and 

 the Ln-tze rivers. Between 28 and 29 N. 

 latitude, a tributary joins the Lu-tze, which is 

 marked on no map except Delisle's ; it is called 

 the Oo-kio, and rises about 31 N. latitude. 

 The Lan-tsang or Mekong rises in the Kuen- 

 Lun range near Koko-Nor, latitude 33 or 34 

 N. The Thibetans are not allowed to transport 

 their salt into Yunnan beyond a certain bounda- 

 ry, where they aremet by Yunnanese merchants. 

 The boundary between Yunnan and the domin- 

 ion of Lhasa is at the water-parting between the 

 Lan-tsang-kiang and the Kinsha-kiang. There 

 are mines of silver, mercury, and iron along 

 the Lan-tsang. Fine forests of cypress, of 

 which there are two species, which covered 

 the mountains, are being fast cut down since 

 the Chinese conquest, as this wood is in great 

 request in China. The fauna of these moun- 

 tains is very rich. By the account of an old 

 lama, the Tsangpo or Sanpu rises near the 

 Tso-ma-pang lakes, in the west of the province 

 of Ngari, by the frontiers of the tribe of sav- 

 ages called the Lhopa. A few day's marches 

 east of Lhasa the river takes a long bend, turn- 

 ing its course to the southward, and traversing 

 the district of Hia-Yul, in Thibet, a well-peo- 

 pled and fertile region, governed by the Kalun 

 Doring of Lhasa. Its course through this coun- 

 try is between steep rocks, which are passed 

 only by rope-ladders. It then enters the Lhopa 

 country, which lies to the southward of Hia- 

 Yul, and after some distance it fnlls into a val- 

 ley from an enormous height. The river here 

 is as big as the Mekong by the salt mines or 

 the Kinsha-kiang at Bathang. It does not en- 

 ter the country of the Nahongs or Mishnis, 

 but disappears farther west near the country 

 of the Lhopa or Abords. A similar account 



