1865.] Notes on Central Asia. 125 
even to reap the harvest that had been left standing in the fields by 
the Sary-Bagyshes. Attributing this favourable turn in their affairs 
to my approach, they rendered me every assistance for my journey. 
With such material assistance, I was able in July of 1857 to wind 
round Issyk-Kul from the south side and to reach the summit of 
the imposing and terrible Faaki-Davan mountain pass; I also 
succeeded in gaining the sources of the Narym, which forms the 
system of the Syr-Daria or Jaxartes. Shortly after, I penetrated in a 
more easterly meridian, much farther into the heart of the Celestial 
range, and ascended one of the most elevated mountain groups of 
Inner Asia, that of the Tengri-Tag, which is crowned with a circle 
of alpine glaciers, and covered with a dazzling mantle of eternal 
snows. In the glaciers of the Tengri-Tag I discovered the source 
of the Sary-Djaza, which belongs to the system of the Tarym- 
gol or Ergei the most remote of the considerable rivers of the Asiatic 
Continent. 
On my return to St. Petersburg in 1858, the Imperial Russian Geogra- 
phical Society, taking into consideration the great scarcity of astronomi_ 
cal points in the region I visited, organised at my recommendation, and 
with the co-operation of the Military Topographical Depot, a new ex- 
pedition, under Captain Golubef, for the purpose of determining astro- 
nomical points in Russian Djungaria, and on the Lake Issyk-Kul. By 
last accounts, Golubef had ascertained the position of three points in the 
valley of Issyk-Kul lake (on the Tekes river, and at the eastern and 
western extremities of the lake respectively), but he had not succeeded 
in penetrating into the interior of the Tian-Shan, owing to adverse 
circumstances, as the southern shore of the lake of Issyk-Kul was 
at that time occupied by the hostile Sary-Bagysh tribe; under such 
a state of things it would of course have been extremely rash to 
advance into the mountains, leaving hostile tribes in his rear. 
All the journeys and researches, since the year 1834, enumerated 
above, have considerably advanced our knowledge of the portion of 
Asia which we are now considering, and have removed it from the 
region of hypothetical speculation, to a certain basis of scientific 
investigation. On this account, therefore, the 2nd volume of the 
Russian version of Ritter’s Asia ought to be accompanied by copious 
and well established addenda. Unfortunately all the materials that 
