Dr. alterer, of Lorrach, in Baden, whose arrival in Shanghai, together with Professor Dr. Futterer, of Karlsruhe, after extensive travels in North-eastern Tibet and China is briefly alluded to elsewhere, has favoured us with a more detailed account of the expedition. The two gentlemen left Germany on the 19th of November, 1897, accompanied by a German servant, and traversing Europe quickly, crossed the Cattcasus near Tiflis, then to Baku, and over' the Caspian Sea to Krasnovodsk. By means of the train, which runs tw week, they journeyed on to Samarkand. Here they learned that the railway would be sti Il further available to them, as it had been. completed nesely as far as Tashkent. The 1>ridge over the Syr Dana (Juxartes) had n of been finished, so the river had to he cro sed by ferry. The next stages in the jou they were Margilan and Ash. At the tat ter preparations were completed for cros sing the Tienshan mountains, the party ric ling and having twenty-one horses carry their baggage. Crossing the range occupied sixteen days, and intense cold ing fre que nly reached of about 13,000 feet.
rally experienced, an altitude be-
At the beginning of Februar, gat was roccheds and after dyer elt maining until neat the end of the mor, th, another atart.was made, the baggage, being this time taken in three carts, whilst the three foreigners rode on b orsoback. Whilst in the Tienshans the ravellers had the good fortune to secure 4 amall escort of ix crmarey from '\he Russian authorities, who, all tim's, treated the expedition with great e¢ynsideration. Thence across the north po.rt of Eastern Turkestan they journeyed to Khamil, frequently h ing, &t?at difficulty in procuring food for them-"wolves an'l their animals, The inhabitants, mostly Chinese or Sartish (Turkish), beyond displaying embarrassing curiosity behaved well, but so large were the crowds in some of the towns that the help of the officials had to be asked from the yamens to protect the inns at which the travellers stayed. At Khamil, the journey across the Gobi desert to Suchou may be ssid to have commenced. It lasted a month, from the beginning of May to the commence: ment of the following month. Instead of the cart road a direct camel route was taken. Sleeping at night in toute it was frequently bitterly cold, and to add to discomforts of the journey there wei many storms. At Suchou carts we! obtaind for the luggage, and s fresh supply of horses. In a few days the Groat Wall was come upon, and the journey was by way of Kanchoufu and Liangchoafu to Sining fu, which was arrived at in the middle of last July.
It was from this town that the two scientists arranged to start on an oxpedition having for its object the exploration of the Yellow River, south of the Kokonor, and running in a south-easterly di tion. If the map is looked at it will be noticed that the river forms " sort of "knee" hereabouts, but very tittle is really known of this part of its cours Before starting, one of the Cossacks was sent on direct for Hankow by the regular route to accompanying some of the colleen tions of the expedition as well as the baggage not required. Then the Turkish interpreter who had been engaged at Suchou declined to go any further, and the party was left without an Important rvant. But, if useful in some respects, interpreters, so far as Dr. Holterer's expe: ence goes, are extremely costly. From Kashyar to Suchou an individual described as a ian mersbant had acted as interpret and abused his position by swindling the travellers and charging them extortionate rates, to an extent only equalled by his Sartish, or Turkish, successor. At Donkir, to the north of Sining, the travellers were lucky enough to meet English missionary named Ridley, who sisted them in the organisation of their caravan which consisted of 42 yak and 13 ponies. They left there on the 6th of August' last, intending to keep " course to the south, south-west, and southeast, and to make side excursions to the Yellow River in order to train its course, which it was impossible to follow. Overs great part of the country thus traversed no other foreigner seems to have been. The party consisted of the two principals, their servant, two Cossacks, and eight Chinese. No guide could be obtained, so first of all a south-casterly direction was taken, crossing the Yellow River at a place eight or ten days' journ; whence they hoped to be able to get gui from the chiefs to take them to Sung-panting, in Szechuan. In the upper Toho valley the party wer" attacked by about thirty robbers, one-half of whom keps up a lively fusillade, whilst their companions raided the animals of the expedition. The explorers returned the fire, and wounded some of their assailants. A portion of the goods of the expedition wore afored for safety in a yard which had been hired, and upon the robbers complaining of being wounded, the inhabitants of the district
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.