TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. Ill 



applied to it — those afforded by a compai-ison of its descriptions with the country 

 it describes. These tests he was confident it would stand, and he called on the 

 members of the British Association to support the investigation. 



On some New Facts in Celtic EthnoJogi/. By Heney H. Hoavokth. 

 The author endeavoured to show that the so-called Turanian race extended to 

 Britain. Starting with the facts collected by Lhuyd, he showed, by means of the 

 comparison of vocabularies and gi-ammatical forms, that a large element in Celtic, 

 whose relations have been previously unassigned, is to be referred to an Iberic source. 

 This element was found to be much more marked in Ii-ish than in Welsh, and 

 explained the differentia of the former tongue. The Gascon dialects were held to 

 be links connecting Breton with the corrupted Basque of the French provinces ; 

 and this cormexion was sho-mi to extend to Cornish. Where Welsh differs from 

 the other Celtic tongues, it was shown to be chiefly in an approximation to Low 

 (Termau forms. To the Pictish Lowlanders were assigned the Welsh pecidiarities 

 of Scotch Gaelic ; to the Irish invaders of Anglesea and the Cornish Dorderers of 

 the Severn, the dialectic idiosyncracies of North and South Wales. Cornish was 

 held to show a mixtm-e of types, in which the Breton predominated ; while aber- 

 rant forms connect it with Irish. These facts were considered to support the 

 traditional connexion of Ireland with Spain, or perhaps with Aquitania, by proving 

 Irish to be a Celt-Iberic tongue. Breton, corrupted by Belgic contact, was held to 

 represent the language of the pm'ely Celtic area of Cresar — a contact exemplified in 

 Britain, where tlie Cornish or Lloegi-ian Celtic is found bordering on Welsh. The 

 dual elements of Welsh point to its being the language of the German and Celtic 

 Marches or fi'ontiers — a condition fulfilled by identifying the Welsh with the Belgse 

 of Caesar. Lastly, the presence of this Iberic element in early British ethnology 

 was considered by the author to explain much that is obscure in its oldest archae- 

 olog}', and to throw considerable light on the traditions of Western Europe. 



Explorations from Leh, in Cashmere, to Khotan, in Chinese Tartary. 



By W. H. Johnson. 

 The author is a ci^ol assistant in the Great Trigonometrical Survey of India, and 

 the exploration which he described originated in an invitation which he received 

 when at Leh from the Khan Badsha of Khotan to visit him at Ilchi, his capital. 

 The author accepted the inA'itation, and caiTying his instruments with him, was 

 enabled to make a good general survey of a ti-act of country which was previously 

 almost entirely unknown. His memoir was of considerable length and fuU of 

 interesting details. Between the Karakorum and the Kiuni Lun ranges the author 

 crossed a series of extensive tablelands from 16,700 to 17,.300 feet above the sea- 

 level, which are so free from ruggedness that a horse may be galloped over them 

 anywhere. One of the plains bears traces of having been the bed of a large lake, 

 and at present contains two lakes covering areas of sixteen and sixty square miles 

 respectively. He struck the Karakash river (of Tartary) in lat. .35° 53' and long. 

 79° 2-3', at a point where it was 15,500 feet above the sea-level. It took him six- 

 teen days to march from the Karakash to Ilchi. The whole country of Khotan is 

 an immense plain, sloping downward to Aksu (fifteen long marches north of Ilchi), 

 and watered by numerous streams, which all faU into the Aj-gol river, and thence 

 into the Lob Nur Lake. Six miles north-east of Ilchi begins the great desert of 

 Gobi, with its shifting sands that move along in vast billows, overpowering evei-y- 

 thing. It is said to have once buried 360 towns in 24 horn's. Fine dust from the 

 desert was seen by the author to fill the air so densely that he was obliged to use 

 a candle at midday to read large print, although the air was perfectly' cahu at the 

 time. The country is very fertile, and equal to Cashmere in this respect. Ilchi is 

 a great manufacturing city. The chief articles are silks, felts, carpets, and coarse 

 cotton cloths. Its population is about 40,000, and that of the whole country of 

 Khotan about 250,000. Ilchi lies 4329 feet above the Sea-level. The people of 

 Khotan had recently shaken ofl' the Chinese yoke. The Khan had an anny of 

 6000 infantry and 5000 cavalry. The author soon learned that his object in in- 

 T-iting a British official to his capital was to solicit the alliance of the Englisli ; and 



