discover that the Kuldja question was
no trivial matter at all, and that to it can be traced many important
events in Central Asia. England may also recognize in it one of the most
useful circumstances that have ever operated in her favour in her long
rivalry with Russia. At the very crisis of our border history, when we
are on the eve of dealing out well merited chastisement to an Ameer of
Cabul, Russia finds herself weakened by being compelled to discuss a
question with China, when her attention is required elsewhere. She will
not yield what the Chinese demand, yet she dare not refuse; and the
latter will simply bide their time until she is hampered elsewhere. It
is no rash prophecy to say that China will be reinstalled, either by
peaceful means or by force, in Kuldja before the close of next year,
probably long before. An alliance between any two of the three great
Asiatic Powers must then be conclusive in all Central Asian matters,
and, before that alliance, the third will have the prudence to submit.
It behoves us to learn our lesson, when that day comes, thoroughly and
in good time.

APPENDIX.

THE POSITION OF LOB-NOR.

Lake Lob-Nor is placed in the map accompanying this volume in accordance
with the explorations of Colonel Prjevalsky in 1876-77; the result of
which was published in Dr. Petermann's _Mittheilungen_ as an extra
number during the spring of the present year. The accuracy of the
gallant explorer in identifying Lob-Nor with his lake of Kara Koshun had
not been challenged when this map was drawn, and when the following good
reasons for doubting its accuracy were published on the 14th of
September, it was too late to make the necessary alteration.

The quotation of Baron Ferdinand von Richthofen's strictures on Colonel
Prjevalsky's lakes is taken from the _Athenaeum_ of the 14th of
September, 1878:--

"It would appear that the Russian traveller Prejevalsky, in his last
remarkable journey in the heart of Central Asia, did not explore Lob-Nor
at all, as he claims to have done. Baron Ferdinand von Richthofen, one
of the first comparative geographers of the day, has examined the
account of the journey, more especially by the light of Chinese
literature, and proves, almost incontestably to our thinking, that the
true Lob-Nor must lie somewhere north-east of the so-called Kara Kotchun
Lake discovered by Prejevalsky, and that, in all probability, it is fed
by an eastern arm of the Tarim river. Thi