very perceptible. M. Minaieff's region of observation includes the valleys of the Indus, the Cabul, and the Yarkand rivers.

Although M. de Ujfalvy is not a Russian subject, some record of his explorations in the country to the south and east of Ferghana may not be out of place at this point. M. de Ujfalvy was commissioned by the French Government to travel in Central Asia during the winter of 1877, and he returned to Paris in the summer of last year. The following description of his travels is taken from the narrative of the proceedings of the Paris Geographical Society. The real interest in his travels commences when he left Samarcand, and proceeding along the right bank of the Zarafshan river, passed through Paishambe to Penkajend, Urumitan, and Varsiminar. The result of that tour in the Zarafshan region was to convince M. de Ujfalvy that the Galtchas, Karateginese, and probably the people of the Pamir khanates and of Badakshan as well, represent the original inhabitants of TransOxiania. He considers them to be an Iranian race distinct from the Tajiks. He devoted special attention to the customs of the Galtchas, who have been generally confused with the Tajiks. One great distinction is that the Galtchas only marry amongst themselves, while the Tajiks, as is well known, ally themselves with Usbeg or Kirghiz women, or vice versa. The Galtchas are therefore a pure race. They are hyperbrachicephalic, tall in stature, with white skins, which are often bronzed from exposure to the sun and weather. Their hair varies in colour, but as a rule it

is black, although fair and even red hair is often to be found amongst them. They have flowing beards, and their brown or blue eyes are close set in the head. The nose is well shaped and slightly arched, the face oval, the frame vigorous, and they are excellent horsemen and pedestrians, being of very active habits, and capable of enduring severe fatigue. Their language is a Persian dialect, which led to their being classed among the Tajiks, and their social habits are those of a contented and fairly prosperous community of agriculturists. The village assembly decides all matters of dispute, but there are degrees of station amongst them which are unknown in the more primitive regions lying to the south. Each village has a mayor or

Aksakal-White-beard-who is as a rule the oldest man in that village. The greater number of the Galtchas are monogamists, but some of the more prosperous have two wives. The Galtchas say that their name signifies "The hungry raven which repairs to the mountains to find means of subsistence." M. de Ujfalvy returned to Samarcand after this interesting tour in the Zarafshan Valley.

But his later travels in Kuldja are still more important. From Samarcand he went to Khodjent, Margilan, Andijan, Osh, and Houlsha, or Gulsha, at the northern entrance to the Terek pass; and after a brief tour in the direction of the Pamir he went on to Kuldja. In this secluded quarter of the dominions of Russia M. de Ujfalvy found a temperate climate, not to be met with elsewhere in Central Asia in the same latitude. The winter, never very severe, lasts only for

two months in the valleys of the Kash and the Ili, and the heat of summer is modified by the absence of those fierce dry winds which sweep across the steppes and sandy deserts of Turkestan. The inhabitants are mainly of Calmuck race, with the addition in the towns of the Tungani, descendants of Chinese military settlers, and of the Tarantchis, whose ancestors were natives of Kashgar. The country is extremely fertile, producing rice, sorgho, cotton, wheat, and fruits of all kinds in great abundance, and it is consequently a region eminently suitable for European colonisation. The Russians, during their seven years' rule, do not seem to have settled to any considerable degree in this favourable clime, and, according to the French traveller, they do not appear to have done as much for the country as had been supposed. Colonel Prjevalsky tells a different tale of the Kuldja administration; but this is what M. de Ujfalvy informs us: "Since the Russians came here more than a thousand persons have sought the favour of being allowed to settle in Kuldja, but the Russians refused, as they are said to count upon having to give the country up to China. Since the civil war which ravaged the country for several years, the valley of the Ili presents a sad spectacle. The traveller passes dozens of villages in ruins; the fields are covered with weeds; the numerous canals are dry; and even the fine forest of Karagatch, which the Chinese planted between Borohoudjie and Ak-kent over an extent of thirty miles, will perish for want of water if the remedy be not soon applied. Formerly the country

contained more than 2,000,000 inhabitants, now there

are scarcely 130,000. Flourishing towns, such as New Kuldja or Ili (300,000 inhabitants), Bazandai (100,000), and Tchimpansai (50,000), have disappeared; there remain only the ruins. The numerous industrial works which the country contained have been burnt, and the laborious inhabitants killed without distinction-men, women, and children."

This is the evidence of a traveller in Kuldja during last year, and it fully confirms what Mr. Schuyler saw six years ago. The Russians have done literally nothing for the advantage of Kuldja and its people during the seven years and a half that they have been there. The great works carried out by the Chinese, which were so ruthlessly destroyed by the Mahomedans in the great outbreak in 1863, still remain to testify by their ruins to the fact that the Chinese possessed administrative qualities which Russia has never evinced in any of her numerous annexations. If we are to judge between the merits of China and Russia as governing powers, is it a false test to apply to the question, to compare the state of Kuldja in 1860 with what it is now in 1879, after it has had the supposed benefit of seven years' administration by a Russian officer? In 1860 there were canals and roads, forests rising on the one hand, and fertile fields stretching on the other, tranquillity and order, a bustling trade, and a prosperous people; and in 1879 all those have disappeared or become useless, except the roads-which, like those of Rome, were indestructible-and the tranquillity which is only a military despotism. Under China, Kuldja contained two millions of people, and

under Russia its population has not increased from the very small number to which Mahomedan violence had reduced it. China proved herself to be a thoughtful and considerate ruler; Russia can in this matter be only compared to a thoughtless and improvident one.

Before passing on to those other Russian explorers whose scene of activity lies still further to the east, we may summarise what M. de Ujfalvy has written upon the subject of Central Asia as a field for sportsmen. During his ethnological pursuits he was struck by the fact that the art, or rather the business, of hunting was closely interwoven with the daily life of the people of Central Asia, and he at once came to the conclusion that this was worthy of attention even from a scientific point of view. The causes for this devotion to sport vary with the particular people referred to. Some hunt as a means of subsistence, being naturally loth to, or ignorant of, sedentary pursuits; others because they are shepherds, and are obliged in self-defence to assume the offensive against the fierce beasts of the mountain or the plain. The former only engage with the combative animals when they interfere with the chase of those upon which these people, chiefly mountaineers, subsist; but the latter wage war against the combative animals alone. The people of the towns have long forgotten their old skill and eagerness in the chase; and M. de Ujfalvy's remarks apply exclusively to the Kirghiz, the Kipchaks, the Aryan people of Trans-Oxiania, and the Turcomans. Of these, perhaps, the Kirghiz are the most skilled hunters, and this can be explained by the fact that