794 keport — 1884. 



Lake Tanganyika. Those places are likely to become the first centres of trade, at 

 which the natives have already learned to respect the white man, where there are 

 residents who have mastered their language, and where native interpreters are to 

 be found. Believing, then, that social problems of no common degree of complexity 

 are certain to arise in a few years from the conflict of many creeds and nationalities, 

 in a sort of ' no man's land,' the table I subjoin may assist those who desire to have 

 •a definite idea of the progress already made. I am bound to add that ' no man's 

 land ' is a phrase which oidy expresses European views. The natives have very 

 definite territorial ideas. 



11. From Central Africa it is not an unnatural transition to Central Asia, the 

 region next the most inaccessible, and pregnant, perhaps, with greater events. 

 The Russian project for diverting the Oxus or Amu Darya from the Sea of Aral 

 into the Caspian, remains under investigation. We learn from the lively account 

 of Mr. George Kennan, a recent American traveller, that there is more than one 

 motive for undertaking this great work, if it shall prove practicable. He states 

 that the lowering of the level of the Caspian Sea, in consequence of the great 

 ■evaporation from its surface, is occasioning the Russian Government great anxiety, 

 that the level is steadily but slowly falling, notwithstanding the enormous quantity 

 of water poured in by the Volga, the Ural, and other rivers. In fact, Colonel 

 Vinukof says that the Caspian is drying up fast, and that the fresh-water seals, 

 which form so curious a feature of its fauna, are fast diminishing in number. At 

 first view there would not appear great difficulty in restoring water communication, 

 the point where the river would be diverted being about 216 ft. above the Caspian ; 

 but accurate levelling has shown considerable depressions in the intervening tract. 

 As the question is one of great geographical interest we may devote a few minutes 

 to it. It is not to be doubted that the Oxus, or a branch of it, once flowed into the 

 Caspian Sea. Professor R. Lenz, of the Russian Academie Imperiale des Sciences, 

 sums up his investigation of ancient authorities by affirming that there is no satis- 

 factory evidence of its ever having done so before the year 1820 ; passages which 

 have been quoted from Arab writers of the ninth century only prove in his opinion 

 that they did not discriminate between the Caspian Sea and the Sea of Aral. 

 There is evidence that in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries the river bifur- 

 cated, and one branch found its way to the Caspian, but probably ceased to do so 

 in the sixteenth century. This agrees with Turkoman traditions. Even so late as 

 I860 the waters of the Oxus reached Lake Sara Kamysh, 80 or 90 miles from 

 their channel, in a great flood, as happened also in 1850, but Sara Kamysh is now 

 -ouie49feet lowerthanthe Caspian, and before they could proceed further an immense 

 basin must be filled. The difficulties then of the restoration by artificial means of 

 a communication which natural causes have cut off, are («) The disappearance of 



old bed, which cannot be traced at all over part of the way ; (6) The possibility 

 that further natural changes, such as have taken place on the Syr-Daria, may 

 defeat the object ; (c) The immense expenditure under any circumstances necessary, 

 the distance being about 350 miles, which would be out of all proportion to any 

 immediate commercial benefit to be expected. We may very safely conclude that 

 the thing will not be done, nor is it at all probable that Russian finances will 

 permit the alternative proposal of cutting a purely artificial canal by the shortest 

 line, at an estimated expense of 15 to 20 million roubles. 



We have had, I think, no news of the intrepid Russian traveller, Colonel 

 Prejevalsky, who started from Kiakhta on November 20, of later date than 

 January 20, when he had reached Alashan, north of the Great Wall. He had for 

 the third time crossed the great Desert of Gobi, where he experienced a tempera- 

 te below the freezing point of mercury, and was to start for Lake Kuku-nor 

 < + 10,500 ft.) the following day, thence to proceed to Tsaidam, where he proposed 



form a depot of stores and provisions, and leaving some of his party here, to 

 endeavour to reach the sources of the Yang-tse-kiang, or Yellow River. It was 

 his intention to devote the early part of the present summer to exploration of the 

 Sefani country, situated between Kuku-nor to the north and Batan to the south — 

 a country likely to yield an abundant harvest of novelty in natural history — 

 afterwards to transfer his party to Hast, in Western Tsaidam, which may be 





