50 REVIEW — TRAVELS IN THE HIMALAYAN PROVINCES. 
life, the superintendent of the East India Company’s military 
stud, who, in addition to his contributions to veterinary science, 
introduced the cultivation of oats in British India, and, even- 
tually, sacrificed his life in the praiseworthy attempt of improving 
the breed of horses. It was this (a darling object) that led him, 
in successive periods, to undertake two journeys into central Asia, 
which have proved to be # the most enterprising, and, in a great 
measure, the most successful ever made. In his first attempt, 
which w r as published in the twelfth volume of the Asiatic Re- 
searches, it appears without contradiction, that he was the “ first 
European to cross the Himalaya and make his way to the great 
plain between that and the Kuenlan chain — the situation of the 
sources of the Indus and the Silly, and of the two remakable 
lakes of Kavan and Manasa. In this journey he not only ascer- 
tained the valuable geographical facts alluded to (the situation of 
the sacred lakes of the Hindus, and the upper course of two im- 
portant rivers), but the region also of the shawl-wool goat, and 
opening a way for the importation of wool into Hindustan, 
and finally into Britain.” And all this, be it observed, was un- 
dertaken and accomplished without encouragement from the go- 
vernment of India. 
Had Mr. Moorcroft done no more than this, beside adding a 
lustre to that profession to which we belong, he might justly have 
been described as a benefactor to his country. But he did not 
stop here. To penetrate into Surhidan, to the country of a breed of 
horses which it was his great ambition to domesticate in India, 
was the object for which this his second journey was undertaken, 
and which terminated so fatally to himself and party. 
In the journal before us, the greater part of it appears to have 
been furnished by Mr. Moorcroft. The geographical details were 
intrusted to Mr. Trebeck, his fellow-traveller. As, therefore, the 
former must be considered as the principal, it is to him that we 
shall confine our observations. The following account, taken from 
the preface, gives what appears to us not only a correct, but a 
just, account of his life and character: — 
“ Mr. William Moorcroft, who is to be regarded as the origin- 
ator of the journey and the principal of the enterprize, was a na- 
tive of Lancashire, and was educated at Liverpool for the profes- 
sion of a surgeon. Upon the completion of the usual course of 
study, however, his attention was diverted to a different pursuit, 
and he finally settled iji London as a practitioner of veterinary 
surgery. His reasons for the change are thus detailed in a letter 
written from Kashmir to a friend in London. 
“ While a pupil of Dr. Lyon, the colleague of Dr. Currie at 
* See preface passim . 
