22 
in this volume, and to any reader of them it will be sufficiently obvious that their value is 
largely dependent on the full notes and observations which were made by Stoliczka. These 
notes were contained in diary form in a number of pocket books, and one of the first things to 
be done was to put everything left in writing into shape for the printer. Some portions, 
complete in themselves, were printed in the records of the Geological Survey of India, No's. 
75, 76, 77, and 78, and the remainder, forming the diary, were printed for private circulation 
among those who undertook the scientific description of the collections. 
This diary affords most remarkable testimony to the persistent energy with which Stoliczka 
carried on his observations and made his collections in spite of difficulties under which any 
one less resolute might have failed. 
As 60 large quarto pages of this diary have been thought to be too large an addition to 
make to this volume, I have been constrained to make a certain number of extracts from it, 
which will serve to convey some idea of its general character ; but I may, perhaps, be per- 
mitted to say that I have approached this part of my task with greater reluctance than any 
other. It is not by any means easy to condense such a diary as this, in which there is no 
padding and no fine writing, but which bristles throughout with observations on the 
geology, so far as it could be studied, and the animals and plants which were observed. 
His departure from Calcutta is dismissed by Stoliczka in four words : “ 17th May left 
Calcutta ” ; hut for those of his friends who were present at the Howrah Station on the night 
of that day to wish him good bye there was a certain impressiveness in the scene, not so 
much perhaps because there were any forebodings of evil, but rather because each one 
realised that during the two years which were expected to elapse before the return of the 
traveller many events might happen which might make or mar his success ; hut these events, 
whether political or otherwise, were all beyond Stoliczka’s personal control ; in him all con- 
fidence was felt, as being a man pre-eminently fitted in every respect for the arduous task he 
had undertaken. 
The diary proceeds to mention a brief visit paid to Simla and his progress thence to Murree, 
where he remained from the 10th June to the 15th July, with the exception of a few days’ 
run to Changlagali and Dungagali. During this period of a month he was engaged in 
making final preparations for the journey, wliile he geologised, shot birds, and busily searched 
for such land shells and reptiles as the unfavourable season afforded. 
Writing to Mr. A. B. Wynne from Murree he refers to the surprise expressed in a letter 
received from Dr. Olclham at his having elected to go to Yarkand rather than to Vienna, 
hut for his own part he felt regardless of what it might cost him if he could only accomplish 
all he desired should be done with reference to Central Asian geology and zoology. 
On the 15th of J uly a start was at last effected for Kashmir, and Srinagar was reached on 
the 27th. En route collecting birds and mollusca and observation of the geology progressed 
steadily, though at Oori he suffered for a day from a sort of sunstroke, from which, however, 
he rapidly recovered.* While at Srinagar several excursions on the lake enabled observations 
to be made ou the breeding of the water birds which abound there. On the 6th of August, 
Colonel Gordon having joined the advance party of the mission, marching was resumed. A 
day s halt at Sonamurg was spent by Stoliczka in the following way ; he writes : “ I went out 
“ in the morning on the northern slopes of the left bank of the river. They are rather thinly 
wooded with deodar, a good deal is low jungle. There are not many birds to be seen 
“ about in the highest forests. Hemichelidon is very common ; I found the nest with young 
* On the road to Srinagar, he met Mr . and Mrs. A. B. Wynne, and expressed to them a doubt as to his ever 
returning alive. 
