Note 3 — Chapter XXVIII · THE MONGOLIAN FRONTIER AT MAIMATCHIN.

One is Mr. Howell, formerly a British resident in China, who crossed from Shanghai to Kiakhta; another is Mr. Wylie, who was connected with the British and Foreign Bible Society, and who crossed from Kiakhta to Peking; but neither of these gentlemen has favoured the public, as far as I am aware, with information as to his wanderings. In 1863 Mr. Michie undertook “the Siberian overland route from Peking to St. Petersburg,” and wrote an account of his Mongolian travels, which was the first English book that had appeared on that part of Asia. Mr. Michie has been followed by three other English writers. In 1869, by Mr. William Athenry Whyte, F.R.G.S., who wrote, “A Land Journey from Asia to Europe, being an account of a camel and sledge journey from Canton to St. Petersburg, through the plains of Mongolia and Siberia;” in 1875–6, by Mr. John Milne, F.G.S., who crossed Europe and Siberia to Kiakhta, Peking, and Shanghai, and read a paper concerning his journey before the Asiatic Society of Japan; and, in 1877, by Captain W. Shepherd, R.E., who returned “homeward through Mongolia and Siberia,” and wrote a short account in the Royal Engineers’ Journal. I heard some of these travellers spoken of by the residents in Siberia, and the Russians seemed mightily surprised that Captain Shepherd should have taken such a journey alone, and unable to speak a word of their language. I suppose Messrs. Howell and Wylie did the same, but I have heard of Captain Shepherd’s exploit as far away as the Crimea, and so lately as last autumn.