374 EEPORT— 1882. 



tantiilo tantum ? Well, that he explains candidly himself ; the revelation 

 is so curious that it deserves to be quoted in his own words.' ' I had no 

 means to take with me more than two Cossacks, and therefore my com- 

 panion (Lieutenant Pylzow) and I, we were obliged to load and unload 

 the camels ourselves, to take care of them, to gather fuel, &c. ; in one 

 word, to perform all the business of hard-working men. Neither could 

 I engage a Mongolian interpreter, and my Cossack was altogether my 

 interpreter, my workman, my shepherd and cook. Finally, our beggarly 

 misery (sic) exposed us frequently to hunger whenever our gun did not 

 procure us a dinner. After our return to Peking, I was much amused 

 to hear one of the foreign ambassadors ask, how I was able to carry with 

 me the bulk of Chinese metallic money, foreign money not being accepted 

 by the Mongols. What would the honourable diplomatist think, had he 

 known that at my starting from Peking I had with me no more than 230 

 Chinese Ian, or 55Z. 4s.' 



But our astonishment increases still more when we learn that the 

 energetic appearance o( these four men, supported by their revolvers and 

 breechloaders, never seen before in those countries, produced such a deep 

 sensation and such a terror among the Mongols, that they considered 

 them at least as supernatural creatures, having unlimited power, and 

 being invincible by numbers. This kind of worship went so far that 

 when Prejevalsky entered the town Dnlan-kit, crowds of people ran to 

 see what they called the famous Ohybilgan (holy man) and all knelt at 

 his passage.^ Thus the poor Colonel, instead of being insulted as a 

 helpless foreigner and checked in his progress, was greeted as a divine, 

 irresistible magician, to whom everybody had to submit. 



We cannot refuse our deepest admiration to a man, who, almost 

 single-handed, explored, during three years, unknown countries, among 

 fanatic and predatory populations, and brought back with him enormous 

 collections, of which he gives us an enumeration,^ without spending much 

 more than 1,000Z. 



At all events let us hope that such travellers may be found in the 

 future, for then we may be sure that the still unknown regions of our 

 globe will be rapidly discovered, and that such noble victories may at 

 last replace the bloodstained conquests of ambitious wan*iors. 



' Zoc. Git. p. 80. - Zoc. cit. p. 381. 



' According to his own statement, the collections which Colonel Prejevalsky 

 brought to St. Petersburg, and which were transmitted to the Imperial Academy of 

 Sciences, in order to be worked out, consisted of 238 species of birds, represented by 

 1,000 specimens, 70 specimens of mammals and amphibians, 11 species of fishes, more 

 than 3,000 specimens of insects, 500-600 species of plants in 4,000 specimens, and a 

 collection of rocks and minerals. 



