NEW MONTHLY MAGAZINE. RECENT PROGRESS OF GEOGRAPHICAL DISCOVERY. The Holy Land-Mountains of Kurdistan-The true Ararat-The Russians in Central Asia and on the Amur-Navigation of the Yang-tse-Kiang-Exploration of the Peiho-Projected Operations against Pekin-Discoveries in Central Australia-Progress of the French in Polynesia-The Gorilla, the Tailed-man of Central Africa?-Navigation of the Niger-Discovery of Lakes Tanganyika, Nyanga, and Shirwa-Mountains of the Moon-Great Interior Watery Plateau -Projected Interoceanic Canal at Suez-Pass in the Rocky Mountains-Arctic Research. THE anniversary address of the distinguished president of the Royal Geographical Society, Sir R. I. Murchison-the "Rapport sur les Travaux de la Société de Géographie et sur les Progrès des Sciences Géographiques" by the general secretary, M. Alfred Maury, and the "Compte-rendu" of the secretary of the Imperial Geographical Society of Russia, M. Lamansky-afford abundant data by which to arrive at some sound generalisations respecting the recent advance made in geographical science and discovery. The progress effected in the latter department more especially, if not of so much positive importance as in the former, takes precedence in the interest it creates and in the prospects which all new discoveries hold out to the future. It is, indeed, to such discoverers that the geographical institutions of this and of other countries almost always award their honorary medals. In limiting ourselves, then, on the present occasion, to that which simply concerns exploration, research, and discovery, it is impossible not to feel a certain amount of national pride in recording the fact that our adventurous countrymen (with very few exceptions indeed) take the lead in a race far more glorious than triumphs of the battle-field. The world is indebted this year to Captains Burton and Speke for the exploration of a vast region of Eastern and Central Africa, never before traversed by civilised man, and for the discovery of the great internal lakes of Tanganyika and Nyanza; to Captain Palliser and his adventurous companions, Dr. ⚫ Hector, Lieutenant Blakiston, and others, for the successful exploration of large tracts in British North America, and the discovery of practicable passes across the Rocky Mountains; and to Mr. John M'Dougall Stuart for his remarkable journey in South Australia, which led to the signal discovery of eighteen thousand square miles of valuable and well-watered pastoral country far to the north of the western saline region. But we must not omit also to acknowledge that where the very best qualities for the successful exploration of new countries-varied intimacy with different branches of science, combined to the necessary enterprise, courage, and Nov.-VOL. CXVII. NO. CCCCLXVII. S perseverance-are in requisition, it is in the land of Humboldt that such are almost alone to be met with. The Barths, the Overwegs, the Vogels, the Roths, and the Schlagintweits attest to this fact, so creditable to the fatherland. The murder of Adolphe Schlagintweit by a bigoted and ferocious Synd, named Wulli Khan, who had the guileless traveller beheaded in front of the walls of Kasghar, is one of those melancholy events which add to the gloomy prestige already attached to those countries by the fate of Conolly and Stoddart. Central Asia seems, indeed, to be one of the few remaining regions where fanaticism finds a pleasurable gratification in propagating error by shedding the blood of man. 66 The Geographical Society of Paris conferred their gold medal this year on the brothers Adolphe, Hermann, and Robert Schlagintweit, voyageurs, géologues, naturalistes et physiciens Bavarois," for their explorations of Thibet and Eastern Turkestan, and for the discoveries made by them to the north and to the north-west of the Himalaya. Geographical discovery would seem to be out of the question with regard to Europe, but this is not exactly the case. The Admiralty surveys -more especially those effected by the naval officers of Great Britainare constantly eliminating new facts in connexion with the submarine features of the earth's surface. The rapid publication of new maps, charts, and works of different kinds-the studies of the historical or comparative geographer, and of the archaeologist-even the labours of the "Alpine Club"all assist materially in the progress of geography. In the last five years these latter Alpine volunteers, for example, have succeeded in ascending the highest point of Monte Rosa, the Dom, the Great Combin, the Alleleinhorn, the Wetterhorn Proper, and several other peaks never before scaled, besides exploring and making better known many other of the highest and most inaccessible portions of the Alps. Asia, a country in which, according to M. Maury, "tandis que la Russie voit grandir chaque année sa puissance, et son peuple prendre possession du sol par des conquêtes faciles et durables, l'Angleterre sent s'ébranler sous elle les fondements du gigantesque empire qu'elle avait fondé aux Indes," has still much to reveal to the zealous explorer. The religious zeal of the English and Anglo-Americans gives rise every year to some new discovery in Palestine and Syria. Mr. Graham's excursion in Hauran-the ancient Bachan-has, for example, furnished many new facts. The traveller has discovered traces of cities that existed in the land of Og at the time of the conquest of the Israelites, and he has discovered inscriptions in an unknown language, whose characters, according to Dr. Barth, have great resemblance to those in use among the Berbers. The German pastor, Valentiner, has contributed to throw light upon the topography of the tribe of Benjamin ;† M. Rosen has perfected the descriptions of the valley of Hebron and of the surrounding country; M. Roth has done the same with regard to the Dead Sea and countries east of the Jordan. The existence of the crocodile, although only once seen, if seen at all, *It is to be regretted that this distinguished traveller, Dr. Roth, Professor at Munich, died of fever last summer at Hasbeiya, in Ante-Lebanon, after making several tours, the results of which have not yet been published. † Journal de la Société Orientale de Leipsick. + Ibid. in the river Euphrates, has long been suspected by travellers and naturalists to exist in Western Asia. There was an historical reminiscence in the Crocodilon Flumen et Mons at the renowned Gates of Syria; there were legendary references to the same reptile in the so-called Dragon of Rhodes, and in the Hawan Kebir, or Great Beast, of the Turks. The Crusaders found crocodiles in the Lacus Crocodilorum, east of Marash, and which, albeit still known as the Moiat al Temsah, or Crocodile Waters, have not, to our knowledge, been explored by any modern naturalist. M. Victor Guérin had also announced his belief in the existence of the same creature in the rivers of Palestine, but M. Roth has at length set the question at rest by the discovery of the remains of no monitor or ameiva, but of true crocodiles, in the rivulets of Zerka and Difleh, that flow between Jaffa and Cæsarea. The same distinguished naturalist and zealous traveller has also determined the mollusc from which the Tyrian dye was derived to be the Murex trunculus. Dr. de Kotschy has published the result of an interesting exploration of Taurus in Cilicia, and M. Nicolaï de Seidlitz has given to the world an equally meritorious monograph of the environs of Lake Urimiyah. The most interesting and little-known central regions of Kurdistan are also getting gradually laid open. M. C. Sandreczki has travelled from Mosul to Urimiyah. M. Lersch has published a memoir on the language of the Kurds, among whom M. O. Blau distinguishes four principal races in the north: the Djélali, the Melanli, the Schakaki, and the Haideranli.+ Dr. Azariah Smith, missionary of the American board, has impugned the correctness of Mr. W. F. Ainsworth's positioning of Julamerk or Julamerik, which may be considered as the pivot of central North Kurdistan. It is quite possible that the traveller in question may have been slightly in error in his latitudes, as, having several lofty mountain ranges to cross in reaching that point, he may, in the fear of exaggerating the horizontal distance, where so much was at high angles of inclination, have, in reality, under-estimated the distance travelled. The only observations obtained to correct the day's workings at Julamerik itself were two of Jupiter on the meridian, June 20 and 21 (78 deg. 45 min. 40 sec., and 78 deg. 45 min. 50 sec.), and one of the moon on the meridian, June 21 (time 5 h. 4 min. 30 sec., 100 deg. 20 min. 20 sec.). These observations were obtained under circumstances of peculiar difficulties, originating in the jealousy of the natives, and are, therefore, not entirely to be depended upon. But it may also be remarked, that if Dr. Azariah Smith's positioning of Julamerk, as he designates it, is correct, what becomes of the country traversed in several days' journey by Mr. Layard between Wan and that place, and which includes the districts of Mukus, of Shattak, and Lewen ?§ The relative position of Zakho and Jezirah ebn Omar, as also of the river Khabur, with respect to Julamerik, has been decidedly cleared up by the American geographers, who have had further opportunities of exploring the intervening country; but what * Annales des Voyages. † Journal de la Société Orientale de Leipsick. Journal of the American Oriental Society, vol. ii. p. 63 et seq. See map attached to Mr. Layard's Discoveries in the Ruins of Nineveh and Babylon. does Dr. Smith mean by saying "there can be no hesitation in striking out the Little Zab (Berdizawi) ?" Dr. Smith himself admits the existence of a stream at Leihun, the point in question, since he speaks of "the smallness of its mouth."* There are, however, three streams at that point one was three or four yards, another twenty, and a third twentytwo yards wide in June.† The map-maker is responsible for the dotted prolongation of the central and easterly streams northwards. Dr. Wright, quoted by Dr. Smith, also says: "Just east of the church of Mar George is a small stream, a branch of the Zab." It is, however, to be hoped that the results of the survey made by the Limitrophal Commission, acting under the joint powers of Turkey, Persia, Russia, and England, will soon be published, when no doubt geography will be enriched with a vast mass of detail regarding the interior of Kurdistan.‡ In Persia, Mr. Thomson and Lord Schomburg Kerr, attached to the British mission, have made no less than three separate ascents of the peak of Demavend, north of Teheran, and have determined its summit by boiling water to be 21,500 feet above the sea. It appears from this that the barometrical observation of Mr. W. Taylor Thomson (Mr. Thomson's brother), made in September, 1837 (15.05), has been under-estimated.§ M. de Kotschy, who effected the ascent of the Demavend after Mr. W. Taylor Thomson, also estimates the height as double that of Mount Etna; and these estimates are further corroborated by M. Lennes's geodetic observations made in 1838, and which, according to M. Otto Struve's calculations, give 20,085 French feet for the elevation of the same peak. "Hence," remarks Sir R. I. Murchison, "it is certain that Demavend is much loftier than the Ararat of geographers, which lies at the south end of the Caucasus, and has an altitude of 17,112 feet only. But if that name is to be applied to the highest summit in Western Asia, we are assured by Sir Henry Rawlinson that Mount Judi, overhanging the plain of Assyria, is much higher than Demavend, and is actually considered by the inhabitants to be the mountain on which the ark of Noah rested." The tradition of the Jebel Judi being the true Thenanin, or Mountain of the Ark, is well known to Oriental travellers || but the range of mountains so named is far from being the highest in Kurdistan, not ascending beyond the limit of perpetual snows. The loftiest peaks in Kurdistan will, there is every reason to believe, be found in the Tura Jelu, or Jellu, or Jawur Tagh, probably in the peak marked as Sheikiv. ¶ But although the Jellu mountains are so high as to have been described as snow-clad "peaks rising on a sea of peaks, or mountains superposed on a group of mountains,' ,"** it does not necessarily follow that they exceed *Journal of the American Oriental Society, vol. ii. p. 66. † Journal of the Royal Geographical Society, vol. xi. p. 48. All these streams were crossed by the traveller, whose veracity is thus carelessly impugned, on bridges of twigs. See Travels, &c., vol. ii. p. 242. According to information communicated by Mr. Petermann to Sir R. I. Murchison, the results of the survey of the boundary line between Turkey and Persia, executed by the International Commission, are now being laid down in the Dépôt de la Guerre at St. Petersburg on the scale of 1: 73.500. Journal of Royal Geographical Society, vol. viii. p. 109 et seq. Travels, &c., vol. ii. p. 340 et seq. Map in Journal of Royal Geographical Society, vol. xi. p. 74. **Travels, &c., vol. ii. p. 311. the Demavend or even Mount Ararat in elevation, as the latter have the advantage of a more elevated basis. We, however, join in all cordiality in the feelings of hope expressed by the distinguished president of the Royal Geographical Society, that as Sir Henry Rawlinson has gone to Persia, there to represent our sovereign, he will not quit his post until he has taken steps to clear up these points. 66 The Russians never weary in their laborious explorations of Central Asia. If we are to place confidence in the foresight and correctness of the generalisations of the French reporter, ces expéditions se rattachent au vaste projet d'extension de son influence en Asie nourri par le gouvernement russe. Déjà, depuis longues années, cet empire prépare les voies qui doivent lui ouvrir l'accès de l'Asie méridionale." One of the latest and most important expeditions was that sent into the heart of Central Asia, under Captain Julubeff, to beyond the river Ili and the lake Balkhash in the Kirghis steppes, to the confines of Chinese Turkestan. M. Alexis Boutakow has also explored the lower course of the Syr-Dariah from Fort Perowski to its embouchure. M. Khanikoff has led an expedition into Khorassan, a country which, M. Maury also tells us, "est appelé à jouer, dans les destinées politiques de l'Asie, un rôle important," and Sir R. I. Murchison says of the efficiency of this expedition that it gave to it the scientific importance of a general survey.* Nor have the exploratory labours of Russia been less energetic more to the eastward. The river Ussuri, one of the affluents of the great Amur, and which constitutes the boundary between Russia and China, was last year examined by Captain Veniukoff, and for the first time its banks were examined in their whole length. M. Schmidt has also been sent in charge of an expedition to the basin of the Amur itself, and which is to extend its researches to the Khin Jhan, and other mountain chains, from whence its tributaries descend, as also to the island of Sakhalin. The Amur, it may be remarked, has been visited since it has been opened to navigation by the Russians from the seaboard. M. Otto Esche, a merchant of San Francisco, equipped the Oscar with the view of establishing commercial relations with Mantchuria. Leaving his ship in the bay of Castries, celebrated by the clever escape from thence of the Russian squadron in 1855 (they having made their way good to the Amur by the north, whilst the British fleet was returning in pursuit to gain the Sea of Okhotsk by La Pérouse's Strait !), and the site now of the fortress of Alexandrovsk, M. Esche made his way in a small vessel to Nikolaïewsk, which he describes as being already a flourishing town, built upon a table-land as extensive as that of San Francisco. The town is surrounded by a forest, and its market-place is equal in extent to the Washington-square of the Californian port. Wide streets diverge from it as from a central point. There is a restaurant, a ball-room, a readingroom with all the German, French, and Belgian papers, and a library which already boasts of its four thousand volumes. There are several villages inhabited by Russian colonists around the town, where corn * Bulletin of the Society of St. Petersburg and the Viestnikk imperatorskago rousskago geographitcheskago obch tchestva. |