1865.] Hifotes on Central Asia. 117 



not embrace even Djungaria. Their extreme limit was the Chinese 

 picket of Baty, on the Irtysh, in 49° N. Latitude, and Humboldt's 

 greatest service in connexion with the geography of the interior of 

 Asia consists in the critical elaboration of the materials relating to this 

 sirbject in his classical " Asie Centrale." 



Some of these materials, namely the itineraries of Asiatic traders, 

 who had visited different parts of Asia with caravans, were diligently 

 collected at Semipalatinsk by Humboldt, and another portion of his 

 materials was derived from Chinese sources that had been elaborated by 

 the European Sinologists, Abel Remusat, Klaproth, Schott, Neuemann, 

 St. Julien, Father Hyacinth, and others. 



Among the few unscientific eye-witnesses who, in the pursuit of 

 trade, penetrated into Inner Asia, were some Russians, and among 

 these in point of lucidity, and accuracy of information, the first place 

 is undoubtedly occupied by the interpreter Putinsef, who, in 1811, 

 visited Kuldja and Chuguchak, the most flourishing towns of Djun- 

 garia. The narrative of this journey was published in the " Siberski 

 Vestnik" translated by Klaproth, and served Ritter as one of the 

 most valuable sources in elucidating the geography of this region. In 

 addition to Putinsef, we may mention the miner Snegiref, who, towards 

 the end of the last century, proceeded from the Altai to the neighbour- 

 hood of Chuguchak, in search of gold ; also the noble Madatof, who, 

 in the early part of the present century, successfully reached India, 

 starting from Semipalatinsk, and traversing lake Issyk-Kul, the Celestial 

 mountains and Little Bokhara. A short account of Snegiref 's journey 

 was printed in the " Siberski Vestnik," but with Madatof 's expedition 

 I am acquainted only through official documents preserved in the 

 archives at Omsk, and as no original narrative was discovered by me, 

 it must be presumed that none ever existed. I also found a short 

 marche-route at Semipalatinsk, drawn up by the merchant Bubeninof, 

 who, in 1821, proceeded from Semipalatinsk to Kashgar. This 

 itinerary will be printed in due season, but from its brevity and 

 scantiness of information, it is in no respect more valuable than the 

 itineraries already printed and digested by Humboldt and Ritter. 



Such was the unsatisfactory condition of our knowledge of the 

 geography of Central Asia in 1881, at the time of the appearance 

 of that part of Ritter 's work which relates to it. It was only in 



