NATURE 



389 



THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 1SS0 



THE SECOXD YARKAXD MISSION 

 The Scientific Results of the Second Yarkand Mission, 

 based upon the Collections and Notes of the late Dr. 

 F. Stoliczka. Published by Order of the Government 

 of India. (Calcutta, 1878-79.) 



BY the above publication the India Government and 

 Dr. Stoliczka's scientific friends have raised a most 

 enduring monument to the memory of one whose loss is still 

 felt throughout the world of science. Born in Moravia in 

 1838, Ferdinand Stoliczka was destined by his father, a 

 colonel in the Austrian army, for the Church ; but, as 

 better luck would have it, having taken his degree of 

 Ph.D. in the University of Vienna, he at once obtained a 

 post more in harmony with his tastes in the Vienna 

 Geologische Reichsanstalt, where he laboured until 1S62, 

 when he was appointed by the late Prof. Oldham to the 

 responsible position of palaeontologist to the Geological 

 Survey of India. His special work in the Survey will be 

 to all time remembered. It forms four of the splendid 

 volumes of the " Paloeontologica Indica," all of which, 

 with the exception of one paper by Mr. Blanford, are 

 from the pen of Dr. Stoliczka. Although his chief fame 

 will ever rest on his palseonlological work, he was not 

 unknown as a zoologist, and several important papers of 

 his on living forms could be easily called to mind. Con- 

 sidering his age when snatched away from his work and 

 friends, he had accomplished much, and had he lived, would 

 surely have accomplished more. In Mr. V. Ball's recently 

 published "Jungle Life in India "we get a glimpse of 

 Stoliczka as the enthusiastic naturalist visiting the Nico- 

 bars. In July, 1873, a mission was sent to the Ameer of 

 Kashghar and YaVkand, under the charge of Sir T. D. 

 Forsyth. Starting from Murree in the Panjab Hills on 

 July 5, the mission to which Dr. Stoliczka was attached 

 reached Leh, in Ladak, on August 27. After a halt of 

 about a fortnight the journey was continued over the 

 Sakti Pass to Lukong on the Pankong Lake. Yarkand 

 was reached on November 8, and Kdshghar on December 

 4. From Kdshghar several excursions were made, Dr. 

 Stoliczka visiting the Chadyr Lake just inside the Russian 

 frontier, and proceeding at another time as far north-east 

 as the Belowti Pass on the road to Ush Turfdn. 



A treaty was concluded with the Ameer on February 2, 

 1874, and much valuable information was collected re- 

 garding the present condition, resources, history, geo- 

 graphy, and trade of the Yarkand and neighbouring 

 countries. On the return Stoliczka was attached to Col, 

 Gordon's party, which left Kdshghar on March 17, 1874, 

 reaching Ydrkand after a detour on May 21, and leaving 

 it on the 28th, when the mission party proceeded to 

 recross the Kuenlun by a more western route than before 

 over the Yangi Diwdn, and then took the Kara oram 

 and Shayok route to Leh. On June 16 Stoliczka com- 

 plained of severe headache, with a feeling of o pression 

 on the chest, in spite of which he the same day crossed 

 the Kdrdkoram, making a collection of, and writing some 

 notes in his diary about the Kdrdkoram stones. ( n the 

 17th he was no better. On the 18th, although suffering 

 much, he climbed a hill to make some scientific explora- 

 Vol. xxi— No. 539 



tion, and the effects of this exertion were at once visible. 

 During the night of that day Col. Gordon ordered a halt 

 for the next day. On the morning of the 19th he fell 

 into a semi-comatose condition, from which he scarcely 

 rallied, and he died a little after one o'clock on that day. 

 Undue physical exertion at an extreme elevation and in a 

 rarified atmosphere was the immediate cause of death. 

 The remains were brought to Leh, where, in a corner 

 of the compound of the British Joint Commissioner's 

 residency they were laid with all honour on June 23, 

 1874. Over them, at the public expense, a suitable 

 monument has been erected. 



The scientific memoirs so far as they have reached this 

 country, are as follows :— The Geology, by W. T. Blan- 

 ford ; the Mammalia, by W. T. Blanford ; the Reptilia 

 and Amphibia, by W. T. Blanford ; the Pisces, by F. 

 Day ; the Hymenoptera, by Fred. Smith ; the Neuroptera, 

 by R. McLachlan; the Mollusca, by Geoffrey Nevill ; 

 the Syrii:gosphreridae, by Prof. Martin Duncan. Each of 

 these forms a small folio part, beautifully printed at the 

 Government Press, Calcutta, and excellently illustrated, 

 often with highly-finished coloured drawings. All are 

 based on the material collected during the expedition, and 

 this was [chiefly made by or under the direct superin- 

 tendence of Stoliczka. Mr. Blanford complains that a 

 considerable portion of the collection, including most of 

 the finest specimens, was distributed with the consent of 

 the Government, the greater portion becoming private 

 property, and that the distribution was made with so little 

 care, and with such a disregard of the interests of the 

 Government and Dr. Stoliczka's memory, that even some 

 specially prepared specimens were not to be found when 

 looked for. Still withal the editors have done good and 

 true service to Stoliczka's notes, Mr. Blanford and Mr. 

 Day being helped thereto by their local knowledge. 



Of the geological work accomplished Mr. Blanford 

 writes that "very little indeed had been done to elucidate 

 the geological structure of the country." But the results 

 of Stoliczka's explorations during his first journey were 

 very great. In the course of a single season's work in 

 a most difficult country, amongst some of the highest 

 mountains in the world, he clearly established the sequence 

 of the formations, and from his extensive pateontological 

 knowledge was able to do this with an accuracy which 

 has stood the test of subsequent research. He, moreover 

 added to the list of known formations the representatives 

 of rhaetic and cretaceous rocks not previously detected, 

 and showed that some of the other groups might be sub- 

 divided. The presence of this remarkable series of marine 

 fossilifcrous beds in the North-Western Himalayan region, 

 a series in which all the principal European palaeozoic and 

 mesozoic groups, except the Cambrian, Devonian, Permiani 

 and Neocomian are represented, is none the less surprising 

 that scarcely any of the formations, except a few oolitic 

 and cretaceous strata, are found in the peninsula of 

 India beyond the Indus River basin. In the hills of the 

 Panjab some of the formations have been detected, but 

 they were, until recently, very imperfectly known. In his 

 second and last journey much work was also accomplished, 

 but alas its full details will never be known. From the 

 notes left behind him Mr. Blanford has collated what he 

 could. "It is," he very truly says, "very difficult to do 

 ju=tice to a rough travelling diary such as Dr. Stoliczka 



