ZOOLOGY AND BOTA:sY Of THE ALTAI MOUNTAINS, 23 



On the Zoology and Botany of the Altai Mountains. 

 By H. J. Elwes, P.li.S., F.L.S. 



[Read loth December, 1898.] 



It would be impossible, within the limits at my disposal, to give 

 more than a brief sketch of the results of the journey which I 

 undertook during the summer of 1898 ; but as the Altai Mountauis 

 are almost unknown to English naturalists, and as I am not 

 aware that any Englishman has previously visited or written 

 anything about that country, I think it will be of interest 

 to point out what a \\onderful field for research exists, withia 

 three weeks' journey of England, and one which is practically 

 less known to naturalists than many parts of Central Africa. 



The country is so extensive, and the seasou fur tra\elling so 

 short, that I was only able to visit a portion of it. So far as I 

 am aware, the only travellers who have wriiten on the natural 

 history of the country, are Pallas, whose great work is well- 

 known, though now rather out of date ; Ledebour and Bunge, 

 who 60 years ago compiled an excellent account of the botany 

 of the Altai ; Helmersen, who has described the geology of 

 the countrj'^ ; and Tchihatcheff, a well-known iiussiau traveller, 

 who published an account of his tra\els ia Erench in 1852. The 

 few English travellers who have preceded me, so far as I know, 

 are Major Cumberland and Mr. St. Greorge Littledale, both of 

 whom went there solely ior gport ; and Mr. Eew, who last year 

 made a rapid ride via BLusnetsk, Kobdo, and Uliassutai to Irkutsk. 

 Since the first half of this century I am not aware of any zoologist 

 who has written, except in Russian, anything of much importance 

 about the Altai; and though no doubt there are many valuable 

 memoirs on various pares of the country in the Russian language, 

 especially relating to the geology and mineralogy, the majority 

 of travellers who have gone to Siberia recently have passed along 

 the main high road to Irkutsk, leaving the Altai far to the south 

 of them. My late friend Seebohm, w^ho visited Siberia especially 

 to study ornithology, confined his exploration to the lower valley 

 of the Tenesei river ; and one of the ideas which he expressed to 

 me, and which made me specially anxious to visit Siberia, was that 

 the Tenesei valley formed probably the most natural boundary 



