122 Notes on Central Asia. [No. 3, 
Humboldt respecting this range partook, even by the admission of 
the latter, of the character of conjectural geography, founded on a 
comparison of the obscure and confused narratives and descriptions 
and Huan-Tsan, in the 4th and 7th centuries. Concise though these accounts 
doubtless are, the learned critic soon discovers in them such local peculiarities 
as can only be descriptive of particular spots and localities, and as we become 
more intimate with the geography of the country to which such accounts 
apply, the more readily and clearly do we identify the points given in these 
marche-routes. To our great regret we do not find this to be the case in that 
part of Atkinson’s work which relates to Chinese Djungaria. From the com- 
mencement, in calling the Tian-Shan Sayan-Shan, he confounds, in name at 
least, the two principal mountain systems of Inner Asia; and in all the other 
portions of his narrative, where he does not confine himself to descriptions of 
the Steppes, the chase of wild animals, and the social customs of the nomads 
(descriptions which would apply with equal force and truth to the whole of 
Central Asia) but wishes to communicate something more definite and locally — 
characteristic, he falls into numerous incongruities, Thus, to cite some exam- 
ples, he speaks of the Kara-Tyn snowy range, at the upper course of the Black 
Irtysh, as of a level steppe intersected by low ridges; again, from the Tannu 
mountains, situated at a distance of 120 milesto the N, H. of Ubsa-noor, he 
sees the Bogdo-Ola in the Tian-Shan, which is about 750 miles away from 
this point. Lastly from the plain at the base of the Celestial range, he simul- 
taneously sees not only the Bogdo mountain, but also the Baishan or Pé— ~ 
Shan (emitting smoke by Atkinson’s account), which is about 300 miles beyond ~ 
to the westward, notwithstanding that the snowy Bogdo-Ola group stands © 
out as is well known, considerably in advance of the main chain of the Celestial — 
mountains, and the Baishan mountains rise on their southern slope, that is to 
say beyond its gigantic snowy ridge, in the neighbourhood of the Little Buk- | 
harian town of Kucha. Similarly as little confidence do those inconsistencies — 
inspire which occur in his account of the time occupied in performing the — 
various journeys, and in his description of the distribution of the nomad Kirghiz — 
population, throughout Chinese Djungaria. As regards ourselves personally, — 
the involuntary doubts respecting the abovementioned portion of Atkinson’s — 
travels are still further strengthened from information we gathered on the spot | 
regarding his journeys, from the Cossacks who accompanied him, and from the © 
commanders who provided him with escorts. Atkinson, during his many years’ | 
residence in Siberia, visited the neighbourhood of Kopal, that had then just — 
‘been founded, many valleys of the Djungarian Alatau, the lake Ala-Kul, 
Tarbagatai, the rivers Narym and Kurchum in the Southern Altai, the Teletsk | 
Lake, Tunkinsk mountains of the Sayan range, Irkutsk Kiakhta, &. but as 
regards his travels over an extent of more than 4000 verts in Chinese territory, 
accompanied by three Narym or Kurchum Cossacks, I regret to say that I | 
not only could not gather anything to confirm this fact, but 1 was con- 
vinced of its utter impossibility, from existing local conditions on the Russian 
as well as on the Chinese side. On the Russian, because the protracted 
detachment of these Cossacks, or their voluntary absence from the corps, is a 
fact that would leave behind it some record in the official archives, while on 
the Chinese side, the journey lasting more than six months, of a party unac- 
quainted with the local dialect, and passing through inhabited districts, along 
established routes, and across the picket and frontier lines, could scarcely escape 
the vigilant eyes of the Chinese authorities. Under all these circumstances, 
and in the absence in Atkinson’s narrative of any new data relating to Chinese 
Djungaria, this work cannot be considered as an acquisition to science, until 
the author adduces more definite information and stronger proofs, in corrobora- 
tion of his accounts which involuntarily inspire certain mistrust. 

