SCIENTIFIC RESULTS 
OF 
THE SECOND YARKAND MISSION. 
This work constitutes a very imperfect record of one single year’s work, as Geologist and 
Natural Historian, of our dear lost friend and comrade, Jerdinand Stoliczka. Impeifect, 
because we have bad only bis collections (and indeed not quite all of these') and a very biief 
private diary — a mere aide memoire — to work upon, and so are able to present only tbe dry 
bones, as it were, of tbe results of bis labours ; dry bones wbicb, bad be survived to deal wxtb 
them bimself, would have risen up a living entity, enriched by tbe substantial body of bis own 
local persona] observations, and vivified by bis genius. Imperfect, but yet tbe best memorial 
that, under tbe circumstances, we survivors could raise to him, untimely bidden away in that 
lone Tibetan grave, where 
“ Low he lies, who once so loved us, whom we loved so.” 
Imperfect, — but, for all that, affording every here and there glimpses of that industry, 
perseverance, and self-devotion, wbicb, informed by wide scientific knowledge, and sanctified 
by a pure and generous heart, constituted Stoliczka s irresistible claims to the respect, tbe 
admiration, and tbe love of all who ever came closely in contact with him. 
But it is not within my province to speak more of tbe man. My friend, Mr. Valentine 
Ball, in bis Memoir of tbe Life and Work of Dr. Stoliczka, wbicb immediately follows this 
brief introductory note, has already told all that it concerns tbe world to know of one whom 
death, untimely striking, alone prevented from taking bis due place amongst those heroes of 
science whose bloodless, blameless triumphs remain for ever tbe inheritance and tbe 
blessings of mankind. It is with tbe genesis of this particular work that I am called on to 
deal, and that was in this wise : 
AVben in 1873 tbe Government of India decided to send a political mission under 
Sir Douglas Forsyth to tbe Court of the Atalik Gbazi, tbe then Mussulman Sovereign of 
Central Asia, tbe ruler of what is now known as Chinese Turkestan, it was determined to 
attach to the mission a geologist and naturalist, and tbe choice necessarily fell upon 
Stoliczka, as pre-eminently tbe most highly qualified geologist and all-round naturalist then 
(or, I might truly add, at any time) residing in India. 
Captain Trotter, B.E.’s work on tbe Geography of tbe Expedition gives tbe fullest 
details of tbe routes by which tbe mission travelled and returned, and an abstract of this will 
be found in Mr. Ball’s paper wbicb follows. Suffice it here to say that Stoliczka arrived at 
* Some of his collections were, undoubtedly, by mistake mixed up with the private collections of other members of 
the mission, and so never fell under the purview of the gentlemen who prepared this record. A. O. H. 
