1S65.] Nates on Central Asia'. 121 



plorecl valley of lake Issyk-Kul. Colonel Khomentofski, the officer 

 in command of tliis force, and General Siverhelm who was in charge 

 of the Survey of the newly organized Semipalatinsk region, were the 

 first educated Russians who beheld this extensive lake and the snowy 

 summits of the Celestial range. Unfortunately this detachment in 

 consequence of its critical position amidst the wandering mountain 

 tribes, the animosity of one of which against the Russians was decided, 

 while the friendliness of the other was open to much suspicion, was 

 soon recalled, and the surveying parties were unable to penetrate into 

 the interior of the Celestial mountains. The southernmost point 

 attained at the foot of the Tian Shan, by Ensign Yayooski the topo- 

 grapher attached to the expedition, was where the Fauku rushes out 

 if its narrow defile on the Issyk-kul plateau. 



In the same year of 1856 I was sent by the Imperial Russian Geo- 

 graphical Society on an expedition to explore those more accessible 

 portions of Central Asia, which had previously been but little visited. 

 Naturally the great object of attraction for me on this journey was the 

 Tian- Shan or the Celestial range. The signification of this stupendous 

 chain in position the most retired in the whole continent of Asia, had 

 already been pointed out by Ritter and Humboldt ; but the labyrinth of 

 the Celestial mountains had not as yet been penetrated by any scientific 

 traveller.* All the learned and critical researches of Ritter and 



* Atkinson, the English artist, in his travels, which were published in 1858, 

 gives an account of his journey from the river Kurchum, in the Southern Altai, 

 across the Black Irtysh to lake Ubsa-noor, thence southwards, past Ulusutai, to 

 the neighbourhood of the Chinese town of Barkul, at the base of the Tian- Shan ; 

 travelling then parallel with this chain, though at a considerable distance from 

 it, as far as the meridian of Bogdo O'la mountain, and finally proceeding in a 

 North Westerly direction, past lake Kyzyl-bash, until he reached lake Ala-kul 

 in Biussian territory. Unfortunately so extraordinary a journey, unprecedented 

 in the history of the exploration of the Asiatic Continent, has had no beneficial 

 scientific results. The narrative, which occupies 115 pages of text, so little 

 characterises the explored region, that it might with equal fitness be applied 

 to any portion of the Kirghiz Steppe. The critical enquirer finds nothing 

 throughout the whole narrative, to satisfy him of the genuineness of the 

 described journey, which extends over no less a distance than 3,000 miles of 

 Chinese territory. This is the more striking as undoubted proofs of the actual 

 performance of journeys of which descriptions have been given, may easily be 

 found in the short itineraries and accounts of travellers of different ages and 

 nations ; as for instance in the travels of Hue and Gabet, in the marche-rouf^es 

 of Tartar traders, collected by Humboldt, and in the more ancient accounts of 

 Baikof, Marco Polo, the Armenian prince Getum, in the marche-ronte of the 

 army of Gulagu Khan, (compiled by one of his officers in the 13th century) 

 and lastly in the narrative of the travels of the Buddhist Missionaries Fa-Hian 



17 



