the Kirghese steppes— partly from a surplus accumulated
under the Governor General in consequence of a
short complement of civil officers, and partly out of the
revenue on the metal mined in the district.
It was only natural that the progress of the Russians
into Central Asia— a country that had been so long
hidden from scientific eyes-—should make a stir among
lovers of inquiry, and the passion for geographical
expeditions was so stirred thereby that in 1845 was
founded the Imperial Russian Geographical Society,
under whose auspices and at whose cost M. P. P.
Semenoff was sent, in 1856, to explore those more accessible
portions of Central Asia that had previously been
little visited. T o him belongs the honour of being the
first scientific European traveller to ascend the Tengri
Tag, though nine years previously the topographer
Infantief had crossed the Ili, and compiled an enlarged
chart of Issik-Kul, and of the roads leading past it to
Kashgar and Uch-Turfan. Also the destruction of the
kingdom of Sungaria had led to that country being
surveyed for the Chinese by the European missionaries
Felix d’ Arocha and Hallerstein, by whom trigonometrical
points were determined not only in the towns of
Sungaria and Little Bokhara, but also at the foot of the
Thian Shan or Celestial range, and on the southern
shore of Issik-Kul.
The Russian occupation of the Trans-Ili region
had the effect of protecting the Great Horde from the
attacks of the Buruts, but placed the nearest tribes in
the same position relatively as that occupied 10 years
previously by the Great Horde. The powerful and
numerous tribe of the Bogus, who occupied the
picturesque valleys and the tableland between the
Celestial Mountains and the Trans-Ili Ala-Tau,
received neither countenance nor support from the
Chinese (on whom they were nominally dependent),
in resisting the fierce attacks of the Sary Bogish tribe,
and they had, at the same time, to repel from another
quarter the depredatory incursions of some of their
neighbours of the Great Horde. Consequently, soon
after the Russian occupation of the Trans-Ili district,
the high Manap of the Bogu tribe, the old Burambai,
claimed the assistance of General Hasford against the
attacks of his foes, and voluntarily tendered his submission
to Russian government.
This led to the despatch of the first Russian
detachment from Vierny to Lake Issik-Kul, for the
purpose of pacifying the two contending tribes, and
making a reconnaissance of the valley of Lake Issik-
Kul. Unfortunately, this detachment, in consequence
of its critical position amidst the marauding mountain
tribes, the animosity of one of which against the
Russians was decided, whilst the friendliness of the
other was open to much suspicion, was soon recalled,
and the surveying parties were unable to penetrate
into the interior. Their southernmost point, attained
at the foot of the Thian Shan, was where the Zauku
rushes out on the Issik-Kul plateau.
Two months after the visit of this fore-mentioned
expedition to Issik-Kul, M. Semenoff set out from
Vierny, and with a small escort of 12 Cossacks
succeeded in reaching the eastern extremity of the
lake, whence he returned to Vierny for an escort of
40 Cossacks, and then proceeded through the wild
Buam defile at the upper course of the Chu, and
emerged on the base of the Celestial range, near the
western extremity of the Lake Issik-Kul. Here he
came upon numerous encampments of hostile tribes,