THE DESERT OF GOBI AND THE HIMALAYAS, in 



parks with botanical gardens, future generations will know how 

 to provide them, probably with better means and service, and in 

 any case with closer-lying interest and benefit. At present it 

 would be an extravagance, a vain illusion, and a needless and 

 costly experiment, to go for the establishment of a botanical gar- 

 den beyond the Central Park, which is so well adapted to the pur- 

 pose, and to create from the beginning a " grand botanical gar- 

 den " at a considerable distance in a wholly unprepared territory. 

 — Translated and abridged for the Popular Science Monthly from 

 the March number of Pharmaceutische Bundschau. 



THE DESERT OF GOBI AND THE HIMALAYAS. 



By Lieutenant F. E. YOUNGHUSBAND* 



THE Royal Geographical Society enjoyed a profitable evening 

 a few months ago in hearing an account by Lieutenant F. E. 

 Younghusband of a journey which he had made across Central 

 Asia from Manchuria and Peking to Kashmir, over the Mustagh 

 Pass, and the discussion upon it, in which officers learned in 

 Indian geography took part. The author started in the summer 

 of 1885, with Mr. H. E. M. James, who has since published in the 

 book called "The Long White Mountain" the best account of 

 Manchuria that we have. The travelers separated, after a pleas- 

 ant and profitable journey, at Newchang, Mr. James to return 

 home by "way of Chifu and America, and Lieutenant Young- 

 husband to travel back to India through Mongolia and Chinese 

 Turkistan. 



Respecting the field of the earlier journey, the author asserts 

 that " few countries could repay the traveler better for his labors 

 than Manchuria. It is a noble country, and well worthy of being 

 the birthplace of the successive dynasties which issuing from it 

 have conquered all the countries round, and of that dynasty 

 which to-day holds sway over the most populous empire in the 

 world. The fertility of the soil is extraordinary ; the plain coun- 

 try is richly cultivated and dotted over with flourishing villages 

 and thriving market towns, and the hills are covered with mag- 

 nificent forests of oak and elm. The mineral resources are at 

 present undeveloped, but coal and iron, gold and silver are known 

 to be procurable. The climate is healthy and invigorating, but 

 very cold in winter, when the temperature varies from 10° below 

 zero Fahr. in the south to 40° or more below zero in the north. 

 Rivers are numerous and large." The principal river is the Sun- 



* Condensed from the author's paper in the "Proceedings of the Royal Geographical 

 Society." 



