Abstract
M. GROMBCHEVSKY, now at St. Petersburg, has given the Russian Geographical Society a most interesting account of his last expedition. It is known that the Expedition left Marghelan in June 1889, and that having found the Alai Mountains deeply clothed in snow, they went to Kala-i-khumb through Karategin and Vakhia. They found that the khanate of Shugnan was at war with the Afghans, and as the latter refused to let the Expedition go further, M. Grombchevsky returned to Vakhia, after having crossed the Sytarghi Pass, which has on its western slope a great glacier, six miles long. In August, after having made a long circuitous journey over the Pamir (the well-known Pamir robber, Sahir-Nazar, being the guide of the Expedition), they reached the frontier of the Pamir khanates now occupied by the Afghans, and waited there for the Ameer's permission for further advance. A refusal was received in October, when the temperature already was from 20° to 24° C. below zero, and the Expedition could find no fuel of any kind. So they crossed the Mus-tagh ridge (yaks being used for the transport of provisions), and reached the valley of the Raskem River, where they met with Mr. Young-husband. During their fifty-five days' stay on the banks of the Raskem, they explored the passes of Shimshal, Mustagh, and Balti-davan, leading to Kashmir, as well as the passes across the Raskem ridge leading to Kashgaria. In November, M. Grombchevsky was at the Kashmir fort Shahidulla-kodja; but the fort was abandoned, and, the Expedition having no provisions, they asked permission to enter Kashmir and to winter there. But Colonel Nisbet refused admission to Kashmir, so that the Expedition had nothing to do, M. Grombchevsky says, but to move eastward, across the desert plateaus of Tibet, in order to reach some inhabited spot. Moving up the Kara-kash, the Expedition ascended the Tibet plateau. The thermometer fell as low as - 33° to - 35° C., all water was frozen, and two-thirds of the horses died; so that all natural history collections were abandoned, and, notwithstanding a frightful snowstorm, the Expedition re-crossed the mountains and went to Kashgaria. The first settlements were reached in February. Next month M. Grombchevsky went to Khotan, and thence to Niya, where he met with the commander of the Tibet Expedition, M. Pyevtsoff. At the end of March, he visited the Sourgak gold-mines in the south of Niya—where he found 3000 men busy in gold-washing—and Polu, whence he again ascended the Tibet plateau, and after some explorations he returned to Kashgaria again. In the autumn he visited the middle course of the Raskem River, making acquaintance with interesting tribes of mountaineers, and thence returned to Russia. The geographical results of the expedition seem to be very important. Surveys were made over a length of 5000 miles, and latitudes and longitudes were determined at 73 different spots; heights were measured throughout the journey, and photographic views taken; and rich geological, botanical, and entomological collections were secured.
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Geographical Expeditions. Nature 43, 352–354 (1891). https://doi.org/10.1038/043352a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/043352a0