CURRENT LITERATURE.
THREE BOOKS OF TRAVEL.
l'hs Great Plateau : being an Account of Exploration in Central Tibot, 1903, and of the Gartok Expedition, 1904-1905. By Captain 0.44,. Bawling. (E. Arnold. 15s. net.)—The first of Captain
R.awling's journeys started from Leh, and explored a considerable part of that lake district of Central Tibet of which Captain Deasy has hitherto been the chief pioneer. It is a strange, bleak country, where a few feet of rich soil cover often a solid mass of ice. He was in sight of the mighty range of the Kuan Lnan, but his explorations were on the plateau and not in the mountains.
The most extraordinary incident was the discovery of Captain Deasy's stores when the party was on the brink of starvation.
One of Captain Ravrling's men had accompanied the earlier
traveller, and remembered the burying of a large quantity of stores at a place marked by a cairn of stones. The good luck which attends on courageous adventurers enabled them to find the spot, —surely one of the most curious of modern romances of travel. The discovery was made that the water of some of the Tibetan lakes was getting fresher. For example, Captain Bower in 1891 found one lake salt, Captain Deasy in 1897 just drinkable, while Captain Bawling found it per- fectly sweet. The travellers had great trouble with rascally servants, and were ultimately turned back by the passive resistance of the Tibetans. "They make no appeal to arms—but rather to legs; if they fought they would in all probability be defeated, and possibly annihilated ; they therefore seize the caravan animals, bar the road, clasp the intruder round the waist, bare their chests and ask to be shot; wh ereupon the traveller is rendered utterly powerless." From these Tibetans Captain Bawling first learned of the despatch of the Tibet Mission. The journey was on the whole successful, for it resulted in the mapping I of thirty-five thousand miles of hitherto unknown and unexplored country. The second expedition is already famous. It was under- taken after the return of the Tibet Mission from Lhasa to Gyangtae, and its main object was the exploration of the route to Gartok, in Western Tibet, one of the trade-marts under the Treaty, which no European had ever visited. The narrative is full of interest, for the travellers visited the Teshu Lama at Shigatse ; they journeyed up the valley of the Tsangpo, which in . the main is pleasant and habitable ; they had a view of Everest from the north ; and they were everywhere received in the most friendly .
spirit. Not the least valuable of the chapters is that describing the great Manasarowar Lake and the sacred peak of Kailas Parbat After leaving Gartok they crossed the Shipki Pass, and arrived comfortably at Simla. The style of the book is throughout clear and modest, the descriptions are full of vigour, and the interest of the subject is of the highest.—Moro purely scientific in its
purpose is Dr. Gottfried Merzbacher's The Central Tian-Shan Mountains, 1902-1903 (John Murray, 12s. net). The author's
principal aim was to determine the actual situation of the great peak of Khan-Tengri (about 23,000 feet), and he found that, contrary to earlier beliefs, it was not the central nucleus of the whole system, but a secondary spur. It must be a wonderful
sight, for it is a complete pyramid, "cast in a single unbroken
mould without shoulder or ar6te from its topmost crest
down to the valley." He found a glacier, the Mylchek, some forty miles long, and therefore one of the greatest in the world. Dr. Merz- bacher received every assistance from the Russian authorities, and he took with him Tyrolese guides, for his interest in "Alpinism" was a very real one. Besides topographical work, the expedition resulted in valuable contributions to geology and palaeontology. Some of the upland valleys in the Tian-Shan must be dreams of beauty, for the mountains are made of marble, so that both reek and snow shine in the sunlight. The wonderful photographs are sufficient to stir the heart of any mountaineer, but the author reports unfavourably of the chance of ascending any but a few peaks.—With the Abyssinians in Somaliland. By Major J. Willis Jennings, D.S.O., and Christopher Addison, M.D. With a Preface by Colonel A. N. Rochfort, CB., 0.31.G. (Hodder and Stoughton. 10s. 6d. net.)—Major Jennings, who took part in the recent Somaliland Campaign, furnishes no record of fighting, but only of armed occupation of various districts. His narrative gives a vivid impression of the immense difficulties a transport officer has to face in that country. The book is written in high spirits, and there are some good sketches of sport, and much interesting information about the people, both Somalis and Abyssinians.
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