Sport and Travel- in the - Highlands of Tibet
A Nomad in North America. By Ben Assher. (Hoiden,
•
THE book on Tibet, by the eminent geologist and the well- known Alpine guide who met their death together on the Finsteraarhorn in 1923, is, on the whole, a disappointing one—a result which is not astonishing when it is realized that the former was unable to write of anything geological owing to his Contract with the Tibetan Government, 'and the latter was precluded from climbing for want of tin*.
Sir -Henry Hayden shOWs little appreciation of the' light- hearted character of the people in the country, or 'of the exquisite delicacy of the tone and colour of its land- scape, while, as Cosson's talents were Unused his cOntribu.. tion to the :story. is but that of a sliikri Charged with duty of *siding the party •*ith Meat. The t4ie authors were evidently congenial spirits,' but -their hinnoin dOeS-nbi .oVeiflow into the .nairatiVe, which therefore is but a ..rather .monotonous diary of the daily - march,- and is vahrablb only for its *record of theit jOurneSr Over an hitherto unexplored 4ortioii Of Tibet, the region of the great'fialteS; and ofthe work done during it by Gujjar...Singh, the .SititiieYieri, lent to them by the Surveyor -General of India, the re:tuft nit-which is the excellent Map inserted `in the 'cover. - . the 'photographs- of the*-neily traversed -countrY anr of Pitgiant-.-at th'aSti are the most interesting of its . unfortunately; de; not include` one of the'fiiist ritotifitam. they siw---:the great piken Chen ThaiiA .
TsingpO terthe 28,t55 feet.
The record of the " Noinad's " wanderings through Canada, British Columhia, along the Inside Passage to Alaska, through the Yukon and down its coast to Seattle, along the Pacific seaboard to the Mexican border, thence eastward to Texas, Havana, the Florida Keys and tip the Atlantic coast to Washington, is much more interesting. The author, in a "foreword," modestly states that "the sketches have no Aaim to a character comprehensive enough for serious ktudy," and are presented in the hope that their light dis- course will prove of fleeting interest. It is true they do not give much material of scientific value, but of pictures :if natural beauties, character sketches, and information on the sport to be obtained in the far North-West. Artist, sociologist, and sportsman will desire this book for frequent reference.
Entrancing is the description of the Inland Passage from Vancouver to Skagway in Alaska, where the approach to the Taku glacier discloses "first the pure opal of the glacier waters, stretching for miles towards the inlet's mouth, the frantic, rugged beauty of the encircling mountains, with their caps of snow ; cascade and waterfall on every side decking the face of rock and crag with lines of foaming spray : the balmy fragrance of the myrtle-covered slopes : and then, to crown the gorgeous spectacle, the great glacier gleaming in the sun, casting blue shadows where its rays can find no way."
The guides in the neighbourhood of the Fraser Valley provide him with good stories of their Yankee customers, who are for the most part prosperous business men, whose great aim it is to return to their native haunts with stories of their prowess as hunters. One of these gallant fellows, having made a deplorable exhibition of himself before a grizzly, his guide having to interfere and stop the onrush of the monster, recovered his composure on seeing the prostrate trophy, and confided in joyous tones to his saviour : Now say, boy ! We knows up here it's Alf Bohun as done in that great bearr, but down Texas way, it'll be Henry P. Jenkins done it, you beteha life.' ".
The honesty with which he writes on problems of sociology may be gauged by the admission that in Los Angeles he came across a distant relation : ".This old boy was a descendant of a man who came out to America four generations ago, and who, as a hotel proprietor in one of the Eastern States, had been implicated in some murder case. His descendant regarded his career with some pride and no little approbation :
'You bet the 's don't stop at murder, they all got good tempers,' he declared. 'You look you killed one or two in your day, you bet.' •He had taken unto himself an Indian wife. I met her at his home outside the city ; she was certainly at least a half-breed and probably an excellent housekeeper. So passes the pride of a name."
A delightful book, well illustrated.
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