JOURNAL 
OF THE 
ASTATIC SOCIETY. 
=. 
Part I1—PHYSICAL SCIENCE. 
No, III.—1865. 
Notes on Central Asia.—By M. Sumenor. (Communicated by Lieut.- 
Colonel J. T. Water, 2. EL.) 
[Received 15th April, 1865.] 
[In the year 1856, M. Seménof was deputed by the Imperial 
Geographical Society of Russia, on a mission of exploration into 
Central Asia.—On his return to St. Petersburg, he published a trans- 
lation of Ritter’s ‘‘ Erdkunde von Asien” into Russian, and gave in 
the preface to the 2nd volume, an account of the results of his own 
explorations.—The following notes are taken from this preface. At 
my request they were translated from Russian into English by Mr. R, 
Michel, F. R. G.8., whose name will be familiar to all who are ac- 
quainted with the numerous papers on the geography and trade of 
Central Asia, which have appeared of late years in the Journal of the 
Royal Geographical Society of London. J.T. W.] 
The second volume of the Russian translation of Ritter’s ‘ Asia” 
comprises a description of the North Western portion of the tableland 
of Asia, 2. e. that extensive region which stretches between the Altai 
and the Celestial mountains, from the Hastern extremity of the latter 
at Hami (Komul), to the Watershed of lake Balkhash. 
The range of country under consideration embraces the whole of 
| the extinct kingdom of Djungaria, or the Chinese Province of Tian- 
16 
