National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books

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However, I advised Syud Yakuh Khan to accord to this gentleman perfect liberty. The Syud took occasion, when we were his guests one day in a charming garden just outside the city, to ask M. Berczenczey whether he had any ground of complaint, and I particularly ' remarked to him that now was the proper time for him to speak out if he had received any sort of ill-treatment. He expressed himself as perfectly satisfied, and signed a written paper to this effect. Syud Yakûb Khan then accorded in writing free permission to the traveller to go where he pleased, and I assumed that he would pursue his journey to Kokonor. But M. Berczenczey now abandoned the professed object of his visit to Kashghar, and begged to be allowed to accompany my camp to India. As this arrangement could not be complied with, he made his way by the Sanju route \to Ladakh, and I deputed one of my escort to accompany and take care of him, and provided him with a tent, ponies, and supplies.

Before leaving Kashghar I had obtained the Amir's consent to my taking the Kogiar route on our return to India. This route had the reputation of being very much shorter and easier than that by Sanju and the Karakash. But it had been closed for many years to travellèrs, partly owing to the attacks of the Kunjût robber tribe, and there was some difficulty at first about supplies. , This was however overcome by the energy and ability of Tara Sing, who, by purchasing and hiring baggage animals laid out provisions as far as Burtsi, 14 marches from Kogiar, and to within four days of the fertile Nubra valley in Ladakh.

Leaving the old Sanju track at Kargalik we made a march up the Kogiar valley and crossing the Topa Dewan, a short and low pass, we came into the valley of the Tisnaf stream. Our road thence for four days was up the bed of this river, at that time swollen by the melting snows to such an extent as to make the frequent passage of the stream a constant difficulty and not infrequent danger.

We found the Yangi Dewan a very easy pass to ascend, but on descending the valley on the south, leading to the broad bed of the Yarkand river, we experienced considerable difficulty in passing our animals over the crevasses of the ice beds which filled the valley. For three days our joùrney was along the broad Yarkand River, which had to be crossed frequently, but at no point was troublesome. At Aktagh on the 4th June we rejoined the old road between Ladakh and Shahidulla on the Karakash, and thence retraced, our last year's steps over the Karakorum.

Between the Karakorum and the Sasser Passes, the summer route crosses the high Dipsang Plain, and then follows the rocky bed of a stream till the Shyok is reached. Here we were met by Mr. Johnson, the Wazir of Ladakh, who made most complete and comfortable arrangements for crossing the Sasser and Digur Passes, and on f the 17th June the head-quarters of the mission entered Leh:

Lieutenant-Colonel Gordon's party followed in our wake, and , found supplies and all necessaries at each stage. He arrived at Leh on 29th June, but I grieve to have to record the melancholy fact, that when all the difficulties and dangers of a year's travel were just at an end, our friend and companion, Dr. F. Stoliczka, fell a sacrifice to his zeal in the cause of science. On the road to Yarkand last year this intrepid and indefatigable savant endangered his life by over exertion, when pursuing his geological researches at an elevation of nearly 19,000 feet and in spite of intense cold. The journey across the Pamir was a severe trial to his enfeebled constitution, and on reaching the lofty Karakorum Dr. Stoliczka exhibited signs of great distress. Undaunted however by all suffering, and too little heeding the warnings thus given, he overstrained his lungs and heart by toiling on foot up a mountain-side to make some scientific observation, and then, when he consented to be treated as an invalid, the injury was past all human skill to remedy, and he rapidly passed away.

• Truly has it been said by His Excellency the Viceroy :-

" Eminent scientific attainments and great natural abilities were in Dr. Stoliczka combined with persevering industry and enthusiastic devotion to the pursuit of physical science. He

had already worthily earned a wide reputation by'his work in the Palseontologia Indica.   •

" Throughout the scientific world Dr. Stoliczka's loss will be deeply deplored, and nowhere and by none more sincerely than in India and by the Government of India whom he so ably and honorably served."

Exd.—J. M.