August 31, 1 88 2 J 



NATURE 



441 



At a few points only has our plateau been penetrated by geo- 

 logical surveys, namely, in some parts of the Altai and at the 

 western end of the Thian Shan ; and these surveys are Russian. 

 But the formations, the strata, the upheavals, the denudations, 

 the fluvial action, awaiting scientific examination, are indescri- 

 bably great. A notion of some of the questions inviting inquiry 

 from the geologist and palaeontologist may be gathered from 

 what has been already said under previous headings in respect to 

 the general de iccation and the subsidence or evaporation of the 

 piimeval waters. 



To the naturalist few regions present more surpri-ing oppor- 

 tunities for the observation of the coming, the resting, the depart- 

 ing of migratory birds. 



To meteorologists many of the natural phenomena must prove 

 highly interesting — the causation of the wondrous dryness, the 

 effects produced on animal comfort by the rarefaction of the air, 

 the mummified bodies dried up without undergoing putrefaction, 

 the clouds of salt particles driven along by furious gusts and 

 filling the atmosphere, the fires in the parched vegetation of the 

 desert, the spontaneous ignition of coal beds, the caves emitting 

 sulphurous gases, the rocky girdle of syenite bounding the Gobi 

 desert, the gradual contraction of the glaciers, the ordinarily 

 rainless zones sometimes invaded by rain-storms with a downpour 

 like that of the tropics. 



In the eighth place, our plateau is now under one imperial 

 jurisdiction, and offers many problems for social inquirers. It 

 belongs entirely to the Chinese empire with the exception of one 

 small tract where the Russian authorities have crossed the 

 mountain border. The geographical features for the most part 

 favour national defence and territorial consolidation. The old 

 Chinese Wall is still suitable to the political geography of to-day. 

 In the Zungarian strait, however, in the Hi valley near Kulja, 

 perhaps, also, in the line of the Black Irtish, near Zaisan, the 

 Chinese empire, in its contact with Russia, has weak points 

 strategically, or chinks in its armour. Though the plateau was 

 originally under the Chinese suzerainty, it became, under the 

 Mongolian emperor Chinghiz Khan and his successors, the mis- 

 tress of China, as indeed of all Asia and of Eastern Europe. As 

 the Mongol power, however, shrunk and withered, the Chinese 

 reasserted themselves. At length under a dynasty, from 

 Manchuria, outside the mountain border, the Chinese became 

 lords over our plateau. The Zungarian tribe of Eleuths 

 rose, and after severe military operations were suppressed. The 

 Muhammadan inhabitants of the Tarim basin rebelled against 

 the Chinese government, and for a while maintained an inde- 

 pendent principality for Islam. It was during this time that the 

 British sovereign sent an envoy to Yarkand to conclude a com- 

 mercial treaty, in 1873. Subsequently the Chinese broke down 

 * independence, and the whole region of the Tarim 

 receives its orders from the emperor at Pekin. 



The decline and fall of the Mongol empire, the disruption of that 

 wide-spread dominion, like the breaking up of the ice on its own 

 frozen rivers, are historical themes beyond the sco; >e of thisaddress. 

 But the changes which have gradually come over the national cha- 

 racter of the Mongolians are cognate to the studies of geographers. 

 As already seen, the annals of the Mongols reveal one of the 

 many examples of the theory of causation, explaining how geogra- 

 phical surroundings mould or affect the human character. There 

 remain the mountains, the sea of undulat which are 



still among the few important regions not essentially modified by- 

 human action. The pine forests, though hardly intact, have not 

 been extensively cleared. There is the dread desert — where to 

 the ears of superstitious Mongols the roll- of the mustering drums 

 and the shouts of victorious battle are audible— and which has 

 engulfed in sandy waves additional tracts once productive. The 

 pastoral resources, the nomadic diet and exercises, the tribal 

 organisation, are in kind the same as of yore, though perhaps 

 modified in extent or degree. The short-lived heat may perhaps 

 be gaining strength as the ages advance ; but the winters must be 

 nearly as long and hard as ever. Thus the same physical and 

 climatic conditions which once caused the Mongolian nation to 

 become one of the mightiest engines ever directed by man are 

 still surrounding the politically degenerate Mongols of to-day, 

 who are best represented by the tribe of Khalkas. Once audaci- 

 ously ambitious, the Mongols are now sluggish and narrow- 

 minded ; once passionately fond of an independence as free as 

 their mountain air, they are now submi-sive to the domination of 

 races formerly despised by them as inferior ; once proud of a 

 tribal organization and a voluntary discipline that wrought world- 

 renowned wonders, they are now split up into factions like a 



faggot of sticks that has been unbound. A man who, though 

 the feeblest of pedestrians, grips with his bowed legs the saddle 

 of the most restive horse as with a vice, is all that remains of the 

 historic Mongol. It is for the social inquirer to determine what 

 have been the circumstances counteracting the climate and local 

 causes which made this nation potential in moulding medieval 

 history. 



Here too may be ob erved the tendencies of Paganism, 

 Buddhism, and Muhammadism respectively. Of all regions our 

 plateau offers the best means of studying Buddhism, 1 

 counts mere adherents than any other faith. Though the mid- 

 Ganges Valley was the birthplace of this widespread religion, 

 and was for ages regarded by pious Buddhists as their holy land 

 — yet during recent centuries the active centre of the faith has 

 been in Tibet. Of the four incarnations of Buddha now held to 

 exist, three are within our plateau, namely, two in Tibet 

 near Lhassa and at Teshul.umbo, and one in Mongolia at Urga, 

 near the spot where mounds attest the burial of heaps of slain 

 after one of Chinghiz Khan's earliest battles In Tibet may lie 

 seen to the best advantage those religious ceremonies, the sight 

 of which has always attracted the observation of Roman Catholic 

 missionaries. 



In conclusion, this brief summary of our geographical know- 

 ledge regarding the plateau of mid- Asia is provisional only. For 

 it avowedly deals with regions mostly unsurveyed and seldom 

 even explored completely. Further exploration or discovery 

 therefore may reverse some of our specific conclusions, or may 

 modify the current of our topographical ideas. It is probable 

 indeed that there w ill be such changes, inasmuch as almost every 

 investigation within this vast area has revealed something un- 

 imagined before, or has cau-ed disbelief of something previously 

 believed. This address, then, is limited to a rhume of things 

 imperfectly known, with a view of bringing into strong relief two 

 matters which are unquestionable, namely, the importance of 

 our plateau and the grand field it offers for research. If the 

 public consideration of these matters shall induce inquirers to 

 1 direct their enterprise towards this grand region, we may hope 

 that by degrees the errors in our facts may be removed, the mis- 

 direction of our conclusions remedied, the vaguene-s of our 



notions made definite. At present the physical obstacles in the 

 path of such enquiries are so grave as to be almost deterring. 

 But they do not finally deter those who after forethought decide 

 to brave peril, distress, sickness, suffering, in order to enlarge 

 the bounds of knowledge. Each inquirer, however, has the 

 consolation of reflecting that he makes the rough ways smoother 

 for those who shall come after him. Every journey that is 

 accomplished must facilitate successive discovery in the same 

 line of country. Probably as fast as one line is made good 

 geographically fresh lines may present themselves, and new- 

 vistas will be opened to the astonished gaze of geographers. At 

 length, with all the constancy and courage which arduous travel 

 never fails to inspire, the inquirers of the future will doubtless 

 explore this plateau till it becomes as well known as the Alpine 

 regions of Europe. 



SECTION G 



MECHANICAL SCIENCE 



Opening Address by John Fowler, C.E., F.G.S 

 President of the Section 



Of all the important sections of the British Association the 

 one over which I have now the honour of presiding is, you will 

 all, I think, admit, at once the most practical and the most 

 characteristic of the age. In future times the present age will 

 be remembered chiefly for the vast strides which have been 

 made in the advancement of Mechanical Science. Other days 

 have produced as great mathematicians, chemists, physicist 1 , 

 warriors, and poets, but no other age has made such demands 

 upon the professors of mechanical science, or has given birth to 

 so many men of eminence in that department of knowledge. 

 Though a member of the profession myself, I may venture before 

 my present audience to claim that the civil engineer is essentially 

 a product and a type of the latest development of the present 

 century. Telford has admirably defined the profession of a 

 civil engineer as "being the art of directing the great sources of 

 power in nature for the use and convenience of man, as the 

 means of production and of traffic in states both for external 

 and internal trade, as applied in the construction of roads, 



