TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 135 



having visited Samarkand until the year 1841, when the Emir of Bolihara requested 

 the Emperor Nicholas to send scientific men from Russia to search for gold. This 

 Imperial expedition, wliich visited Samarkand as well as Bokhara, was purely 

 scientific, and consisted of two officers of the School of Mines, ButeniefF and Bo- 

 goslowski ; a very able j'oung naturalist, Lehmauu, since dead ; an interpreter ; 

 and that eminent geographer Khanikolij who, at the Meetings of this Association 

 held at Oxford in 1860, gave us such an interesting account of other parts of Cen- 

 tral Asia*. 



On the whole, however, as M. Vambery will tell us, those regions are so occu- 

 pied by savage warring Turcomans and other Tartars, that the solitary traveller is 

 more decidedly shut out from them than he is from Arabia, China, Africa, and other 

 countries, in which so many great problems also remain to be solved. 



No region certainly calls more for the examination of geographers than Asia, the 

 cradle of the human race; and, albeit the Russians, independently of their researches 

 in Bokhara and Samarkand, have made notable explorations from Siberia into Mon- 

 golia, and southwards to the borders of China and Japan, Sir Henry Rawlinson will, 

 I hope, explain to you what extensive regions there are which require to be explored 

 and defined between Nineveh and Babylon, the countries of his memorable exploits, 

 and the British empire of the East. There, even at this day, no one has followed 

 the grand river Burhampooter from Hindostan into China, though the project has 

 often been agitated, and wiU, I trust, soon be accomplished. 



Again, are there not other vast tracts in the New World which no scientific 

 traveller or explorer has yet visited ? Cannot our Secretaries, to whom I have 

 already alluded, point to many a district, nay, to whole regions, which call for ex- 

 amination ? Ask Mr. Clements Markham how much there remains for the geo- 

 grapher to do along the great Cordillera of the west ? Then let Mr. Bates speak 

 to you, as I tinist he will at tliis meeting, of the enormous countries watered by the 

 affluents of the mighty Amazons, which still call for fresh researches. 



Without further dwelling, as I might, upon numberless new fields for explora- 

 tion, I hope that I have now satisfied you that the apprehension of geographers 

 having already done .so much that tliey will soon have little or no work to perform, 

 is quite imaginary ; for you may rely upon it, that the most ardent and adventurous 

 men, whether geogTaphers, ethnologists, or naturalists, wiU find stout employment 

 for many a long year. 



If I were to extend my observations to those boundless branches of our subject 

 comprehended under the term Physical Geography, which only come into play after 

 the discoveries of new lands have been made, this Address woidd necessarily be 

 swollen to undue dimensions. In fact, physical geogi'aphy embraces the consider- 

 ation of the last of the long series of geological changes, as well as of all natural 

 operations in the historic period, and the geographical distribution of man, animals, 

 and plants. Nay, more ; in the hands of so skilfid an exponent as Maury, it in- 

 volves continual researches into the condition and relations of the ocean and the 



* M. Khanikoff's account of this expedition was translated mto English by Baron de 

 Bode, under the title of ' Bokhara ; its Amh and its People,' 1845. Shortly after this 

 expedition left Orenburg I was myself in that city and on the Kirglhs steppes, and saw 

 what a continuous trade and intercourse took place, as of old, between Russia and Bok- 

 hara. It is much to be regretted tliat the English pubhc are so httle acquainted with 

 such facts as are mentioned by the Russian explorers. For example, and independently 

 of science, M. Lebmann has left an accoimt of the very fi-icndly relations which existed 

 between the Russian officers and our unfortunate countrymen Stoddart and ConoUy, who, 

 shortly after the departm-e of the Russian Mission, were barbarously murdered by order 

 of the Khan of Bokhara. M. Klianikolf lias, indeed, himself assured me that he tried in 

 vain to induce our officers, who had had disputes with tiie Emir, to leave the country 

 with the Russian Mission, being convinced that they ran great risk by remaining in tho 

 power of a lawless fanatic. I am indebted to a Russian gentleman, M. Hippius, wliose 

 notice wiU be communicated to tliis meeting, for recalling my attention to tliese facts. 

 For an account of the mineral structure of the region, see ' Annates des Mines de Russie,' 

 1842, Nos. 10 and 11 ; and for the natm'al history and geology, as well as the buildings of 

 Samarkand, see the interesting journal of M. Lehmann in the 17th volume of the Beitrage 

 of Von Baer and Von Helmersen. My valued friend General von Helmersen doubts if 

 Marco Polo ever was at Samarkand ! 



