lii Proceedings of Royal Society of Edinburgh. 
edition of her famous traveller was received, as was natural, with 
warm appreciation.* 
Of the remarkable intuition with which he was wont to resolve a 
geographical puzzle, a single instance — as it deals with a curious 
piece of geographical scandal — may he quoted. In the years follow- 
ing 1860 the countries lying between the then Russian frontier and 
our own were the object of very keen interest to geographers, the 
political rivalry underlying this interest being not less keen. 
Accordingly, much surprise was felt in this country at the discovery 
that there existed at the Russian War Office a narrative of explora- 
tion in those countries by a certain German baron, said to have 
been in the employ of the Indian Government. The authenticity 
of the narrative was warmly maintained by Russian geographers, 
hut it was proved that no such person as the traveller in question 
had been in the service of the Indian Government, and on other 
counts the narrative was pronounced here, by Sir H. Rawlinson 
and Lord Strangford, to be a forgery. 
It was, however, a circumstantial story, and its geography agreed 
with the map published from Jesuit sources by Klaproth. Along 
with this document there was another, purporting to he a transla- 
tion (by Klaproth) of a Chinese traveller; while a collection of 
papers of similar tenure, which had been sold by him for a large 
sum to our Foreign Office, came to light about the same time. 
Colonel Yule, on close examination of the positions of places in 
Klaproth’s map, observed a uniformity of error founded evidently 
on some principle, and finally discovered that certain of the 
separate squares on which, according to the Chinese practice, the 
map had been originally drawn, had first been omitted, putting 
thereby the longitude of places to the west of the lacuna , so caused, 
too far to the east; then, the error having been discovered, the 
missing portion had been inserted, and again a certain uniformity of 
error appeared in the positions ; and this last time he discovered that 
this portion of the map, when being inserted, had been accidentally 
turned round in an angle of 90° (making east north, and north 
* The Bollettino della Society Geografica Italiana for March 1890 contains an 
eloquent tribute of affectionate regard, along with a very high estimate of 
Henry Yule’s geographical achievements, from the very competent pen of Pro- 
fessor Giglioli. 
