272 THE ZOOLOGIST. 
author does not profess any special knowledge of natural history, 
and in this respect has relied much on the observations of others, 
he has, nevertheless, brought together a good deal of information 
touching the zoology and botany of Russian Central Asia, which 
could only be gained by reference to a number of scattered 
volumes, some of which are in German and others in 
Russian. On the other hand, wherever he could collect any 
information on the subject elucidating the fauna and flora of 
the district through which he travelled, he did not fail to note 
it in his journal. 
Briefly speaking, Dr. Lansdell travelled some 12,000 miles 
through Western Siberia to Kuldja; thence through Russian 
Turkistan and the Kirghese Steppes to Tashkend, Khokand, and 
Samarkand. Crossing into Bokhara, he travelled through the 
Khanate as guest of the Emir, floated 300 miles down the Oxus 
to Khiva, and then continued by a new route across the land of 
the Turcomans and north of Merv to Krasnovodsk, and so 
across the Caspian to Baku, and thence by rail to Tiflis, and so 
home. 
The main object of this long journey was to distribute the 
Scriptures in prisons and hospitals, as well as generally en route, 
for which purpose he was furnished with translations in all the 
languages for which he was likely to find readers. In carrying out 
this object he naturally had both leisure and opportunity to enquire 
into the manners and customs of the various races met with, their 
mode. of life, government, religion, and so forth, the description of 
which, with the geographical details of his route, occupies the 
greater part of the two bulky volumes before us, the remainder 
being taken up with Russian history, and incidentally, as we 
have said, with natural history, when opportunity has offered. 
Journeying from Omsk to Semipolatinsk, Dr. Lansdell 
thus describes the character of a Russian steppe (vol. i. 
p. 68) :— 
“ We were now well on the steppe, whose straight unbroken horizon so 
frequently reminds one of the ocean. ‘The soil is yielding, stoneless, and 
sandy, thus making the smoothest of roads, on which our horses dashed 
along. The country is nearly treeless, and the ground: almost without 
vegetation, so that one had only to picture the surface covered with snow 
to see the necessity for the roadside wickerwork erections to mark the route 
in winter. We were crossing, in the month of August, this steppe, 
