Page:Science vol. 5.djvu/395

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��It is not diffiuLiU to c-om|irehead the inolivea hy wbicli, in 186!l. Russia was prompted to send her troops at-ross the Caspian Sea : and it is likewise easy to perceive why, nine years later, she sent an embassy to Alghanis- tan. whose voyage is partly descrihed in the volume now before lis. The person intrusted with this mission was 3Injor-0en. N- G. Stol- ettofl' of tlie imperial army. His command consisted of twenty-two Cossacks, n colonel. a topographer, three interpreters, and a phvsi- ciiiii. The latter. Dr. Jaworskij. who also per- formed the duty of historian, some time ago pulilished two short volumes in Russian, con- taining the results of his observations. The first volume of this work has Just been issued iu a German translation.

Similar to other previous trnveUers, who have been visitors rather than explorers, the mem- bers of the einbass}' followed a single track, the shortest from one im|}ortaDt point to the nest, leaving the coiintrv to right and left nn- visited. At the time the voyage wns under- taken, the existing maps of the country had been mostly compiled from rongh and unsci- entiflu observations. They were necessarily incomplete: places were loeateil miles from llioir true position, rivers were running up hills, and monntains were set upon plains. Unlike most of his predecessors. Dr. Jaworskij, evi- dently accnstomed la observing, had eyes to see, and ears to hear ; and his descriptive power is irerlainly not of an inferior order. As a physician, he had rare opportunities to obser^'e the family life of the various tribes through whose dominions the track of the embassy passed, and to study habits and customs which would probably- escape the notice of the ordi- nary traveller. We wnlch him with true pleasure, making his preparations at Tashkend, the place from which the embassy started. We follow him to Samarkand, and thence to Dsham. We get accjuainted with the genuine hospitality of the Bokharians, with the mode of life of the members of the embassy while at Kai'shi, and the ceremonies ac-uompanying the receptions given by the emir of Bokhara. Leaving Karshi, the travellers wended their way across the stepjie, to Amu Daria. While attempting to cmss the river bearing the same name, they met with serious dilUcultics, as the Afghans would not permit them to land on their native soil. This obstacle, however, was soon overcome : thej' were made at home by the olTlcials of Amu Daria, and received a military escort of three hundred men to take them aoi'oas the desert to Maztlr-i-Shaiif, where they were welcomed by the seidar, at the head

��of several regimenis of soldiers. Notwith- standing all the precautions taken, most of the Russians suffered severely fi-om the local malarial fever, which induced them to leave their quarters sooner than their suspicious hoetshad originally anticipated. Accepting an invitation, tendered them by the emir Shir- Ali-Khan. to come to Kabul, they set out for that place after a fortnight's sojourn. Kabul was to be the terminus of their voyage.

Passing the volley of the Amu Darin, of which the author gives a graphic description, which may he considereil a brief monograph, the travellers followetl the banks of the Khulm. They then moved through Dere-i-Sendan, termed a glen in the narrative, bnt which, ac- cording to the account (p. 3:U). appears to l>c a regular extensive canon, wiih i^erpendicular walls of an average height of about five hun- dred feet. Unfortunately, Dr. Jaworskij does not seem to have paid uincb .-ittention to the geological features of the coiuitry traversed, for his obsen'ations in this respect are more than meagre. To go into the interesting details of the voyage to Kabul, would exceed the limits of these columns, and we therefore have to refer the render to the volume itself. It may suffice here to state that the first moiiutaiu pass crossed on the way to Baminn was that of Tshembarak: but we cannot omit mentioning the description of the vast caves in the fiami- an valley, and the colossal stone images, reji- resenting human figures, which adorn their entrances. These nide statues, hewn out of the native rock (a conglomerate, according to the author). with which they are still connected by their backs, vividly remind us of the sculp- tures of Easter Island. They aie represented on the plate facing p. 280. The entrances to the caves oi>en between the legs of these images, which are loosely dragied. and whose sex remains doubtful. It would be of interest and importance to unveil the true character of the dark roimd spots iicattered over the appar- ently perpendicular and projecting narrow sur- face, which reaches fiom the ground almost to the broken-oil' elbow of the largest figure on the al>ove-named plate. Until better informed, we should feel inclined to consider them as so- called cup-cuttings.

Having traversed the Sefid Kbak, the last mountain pass to Iki crossed, the embassy, on approaching the goal of their voyage. wei'O met by a vesir. who gave them a warm, broth- erlj' welcome. He embraced the general and his olHceis, iilaced his saddle-eleplmuts at their disposal, ami cscorteil them to Kabul, where spa- cious quarters hail been provided for them by

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