Dzungarian Alatau
Upon graduation in 1872 he began his "continuous, almost uninterrupted explorations of Russia" and China which included a 6-year term (beginning 1873) as a mining attaché to the Governor General of Turkestan. The areas visited in 1874-80 included the Tian Shan, Pamir-Alay, Ural, Dzungarian Alatau, Ferghana, and Seraf Shan mountains, the Turan Valley and the Samarkand-Andijan region. These remarkable journeys resulted in numerous scientific papers, important geological maps including the first geological map of Turkestan (with S. D. Romanovsky), and corrected much in the traveler's reports of Alexander von Humboldt and Ferdinand von Richthofen.