128 report — 1865. 



quarters of a mile in length j utting out near his old landing-place, and perplexing 

 his topograph}'. The principal town is Maroni, hut the island is partitioned among 

 many chieftains, who are jealous of their land and water holdings. 



Ethnology of the Hindu- Cliinese Nations. By Col. Phayre. 



Notes on the Russian Frontiers in Central Asia. 

 By Sir H. C. Rawlinson, M.P., F.B.S. 

 The author commenced by stating that the present boundaries of Russia in Cen- 

 tral Asia were delineated with accuracy on the maps of Asia published by Messrs. 

 Stanford and by Prof. Kiepert, of Berlin. He then gave a brief narrative of the 

 successive encroachments of Russia in this direction. Formerly the frontier ex- 

 tended from the northern shores of the Caspian, by a long bend to the north, to the 

 northern frontier of Chinese Tartary. Along this border was formed the Orenburg 

 and Siberian line of outposts, and south of it, extending to the Khanats of Khiva, 

 Bokhara, and Khokand, dwelt the numerous hordes of Kirghises on their steppes. 

 In 1847 the Russians constructed here three forts to strengthen their hold on the 

 region. The Kirghis steppe is traversed only by a few roads, the most important 

 of which rims from Orsk, north of the Aral Sea, to the Jaxartes. With the ex- 

 ception of one part of it, over the Karakum sands, this route is well supplied with 

 pasture, and the whole is traversable by wheeled carriages. By recent encroach- 

 ments the Russian frontier is now extended to the Jaxartes ; but the line as it at 

 present stands is rather difficult to trace — at least that part of it which extends from 

 Fort Perofski, on the Jaxartes, to the river Talas, including the new acquisitions of 

 Turkestan, Chemkend and Tashkand, and even Russian officers do not know its 

 exact course in its further continuation to the south of the Lake Issy-Kul. Their 

 efforts have been directed to the connexion of the Issy-Kul line of forts with those 

 of the Jaxartes, the result of which will be the absorption of the whole Khokand 

 territory on the left bank of the Jaxartes. The advance of the Russians in this 

 direction has been attended with great benefits to science and civilization ; but 

 although the fear of Russian invasion may be a chimera, it behoves us to consider 

 what will be the political effect upon our own empire in India when there shall 

 thus be a powerful Russo-Asiatic neighbour on its northern borders. Whilst the 

 Russians have been advancing a distance of 1000 miles from north to south, our 

 Indian empire has extended 1000 miles from south to north. The actual distance 

 of our political frontier (the frontier of Thibet, a country under our influence) from 

 the nearest point in Russian territory is now between 400 and 500 miles, that is, 

 from Karakorum to the Thian Chan range ; but our real frontier at Peshawur is 

 above 1000 miles distant, according to the most recent itineraries of our agents 

 who have traversed the intervening space. The most recent advance of Russia in 

 Khokand has provoked the hostility of the neighbouring Khan of Bokhara, and it 

 is within the bounds of probability that the forces of Russia and Bokhara are now 

 in collision. 



On a Recent Survey of the Chain of Mont Blanc. 

 By A. Adams-Reillt, B.A. 

 The author described the imperfect state of our knowledge with regard to the 

 topography of the Mont Blanc range, and the motives that had induced him to 

 construct, on his own surveys, 'an elaborate map, a large sketch of which was 

 exhibited. The errors in the delineation of this and of other mountain-chains 

 arose from the fact that they usually form the boundaries of countries, and the 

 Government surveyors of each do not cooperate with each other, but carry their 

 work simply to the watershed of the ridges. It thus frequently happens that the 

 surveys of the two sides of a ridge are found, when compared, to contradict each 

 other. Before the visit of Windham and Pocock, 1741, the valleys of Mont Blanc 

 were unknown to the world, and the glaciers of the range were so erroneously 

 delineated up to the year 1842, when Prof. J. Forbes commenced his observations 

 on the Mer de Glace, that he found himself obliged to make an entirely new survey 



