DR. HEDIN, Swedish explorer, began his latest and most successful
expedition (of 1899-1901) by adopting a 'method of travel that contrasted very strongly with the strenuous
circumstances of its final stage, his return journey across Tibet. To float for a thousand miles on the bosom of a river that moves at the rate of two miles an hour seems, indeed, an ideal way of crossing Central Asia. The traveller, alas !
seldom realises all the joys of exploration with so little physical exertion. And, we may add, probably no traveller ever worked harder to make the most of such an oppor- tunity of using the resulting freedom of obsertation. He mapped the tortuous course of the Kashgar-daria and Tarim Rivers, which traverse the north of East Turkestan, as if he were preparing an Ordnance Survey. One cannot help thinking that he must have a constitution and a concentration of purpose rare even among explorers. There are few men who can sit a whole livelong day doing such steady, continuous work as this implies, possessing at the same time a physical endurance which one can only compare to that of another great Scandinavian explorer.
There must have been a great charm about that long, quiet voyage, with the riverside poplars changing to the gold and sere of autumn. Monotony there was, but the windings of the river gave variety, and the next turn might reveal something strange. Moreover, there was always the peculiar destiny of the Tarim to bear in mind. Probably the distance travelled was nearly two thousand miles, for the Tarim resembles the Euphrates below Babylon as described by Herodotus. The river became ice-bound before the explorer could trace it to the many channels and lakes of Lop-Nor, where it wastes away into the yardangs and shifting sand of the Takla-Makan. But he was seldom idle, as we know, and crossed the dreaded Takla-Makan Desert once more to its southern border at Cherchen, with the loss of only one camel. From Cherchen on the Cherchen-daria, a river which runs up from the south of the Takla-Makan to lose itself in the Kara-Koshum-koll, or Lop-Nor, he made a short dash westward to the site of a ruined city in the desert, and then returned by the delta of the Tarim to his head- quarters. From thence he went north-east, and returning to the Tarim, made his first discovery of the buried cities of Loii-lan in the old Lop-Nor basin. The survey of this wonderful region he left till his return from a reconnaissance in the Tibetan border ranges. But he gives us a most inter- esting account of the reedy wilderness of the Kara-Koshmn Lakes, and the quaint nomadic fisherfolk of the region. Dr. Hedin describes his wanderings in detail, and quite unneces- sarily apologises for doing so. All this region is fresh to Europeans, so that the day-by-day descriptions he gives us are really invaluable. The simple pastoral existence of these people helps us to realise the gulf that stands between the present and the past. The "unchanging East" indeed ! The unchanging East is only a phrase, applying to the mental attitude of its peoples. There are more forgotten cities between the Persian Gulf and Manchuria than we ever knew of.
The last part of the year 1900 was spent in a trying expedition across the border ranges of Northern Tibet, and the reader is thus prepared for the hardships which the caravan underwent on the concluding journey across Tibet. Leaving the Tarim at Abdall, Dr. Hedin crossed the Astyn- Tag Range, made his headquarters at Temirlik, and thence penetrated five mountain ranges and their intermediate desolate valleys,—a weird elevated region of stony passes, marshy plateaux, bi- dry tracts strewn with rocky debris. Here he saw no human beings, but in favoured spots plenty of wild asses, antelopes, yaks, ducks, and geese. The heart of the Takla-Makan, says the explorer, was not more destitute of life than this abominable region. The extraordinary elevation
• Centre Asia and Tibet. By Sven Hedin. 2 vols. With Maps and Illus- trations. London : Hurst and Blackett. [421. net.]
of these Kwen-Lun ranges, somewhere about the height of Mont Blanc, played havoc with the horses, and, strange to say, with the mountaineers,—the Afghan, Aldat, a great yak- hunter, for instance. This region is remarkable, as is the whole of Central Asia, for its self-contained drainage and its salt lakes. They crossed near the turning-point of this ex- pedition one of the largest rivers the traveller had seen in Northern Tibet, yet this emptied into a veritable Dead Sea, all at an altitude of 15,634 ft. This country would have a certain fascination for the geologist, and actually possesses a strong scientific interest. It is an unhappy mixture of mud and stones. Everything is in a state of dis- integration. The very mountains are as soft as pumice-stone, according to Dr. Hedin, and the ground in spots quaked under the horses' feet. The weather in Tibet, as every one knows, is nearly the worst in the world, being, however, a shade better than that of Tierra del Fuego, because one does get dry sometimes. But these mountains must be among the draughtiest and stormiest places on the globe.
On his return to his camp the explorer set about his survey of the ancient Lop-Nor and those buried cities he had passed in the previous year. To do this he intended to cross the Desert of Gobi again northwards east of the Tarim Delta, and travelling to a former camp at a spring, retrace the route across the ruined sites of the deserted cities. This portion of the Desert of Gobi is interesting as being the home of the wild camel. But for the season being winter, this journey would have been overtaken by the disasters of that fearful Takla-Makan journey in 1896. However, the trial, if sharp, was short, and striking some springs after the camels had been ten days without water, the explorer was soon at his old camp. It was a triumph for the map-maker, for he was aiming at a fixed spot in the desert, and his calculations were based on an intervening series of journeys extending over twelve hundred miles. One may remark here on the extra- ordinary " bump " of locality possessed by the Central Asiatics, and its accuracy. The springs which the caravan touched before reaching the camp were located on hearsay by a former servant of the explorer. None of these men ever forget a trail they have travelled on, wherever they happen to cross it. It is as much a part of the steppe-dweller's education as being able to read a signpost in England is to the average rustic ; but it employs quite another sense, and it must be accurate. Why, the Buriat Cossack, Shagdur, made a map for Dr. Hedin when he went on a hunting expedition which his master describes as faultless.
They were now close to the ruins of Loii-lan, and at once set out to overhaul the clay towers and sand-buried foundations for anything that could throw light on its history. We know now what that history was. In the ruins of what had once been a livery stable they dis- covered the contents of a Chinese contractor's waste-paper basket. Two thousand years ago a thriving city sat on the shores of the Tarim Lakes, and was in existence even in the fourth century of our era. It was between the two great caravan routes across Asia. I Chinese pilgrim on his way back from India some twelve hundred years ago touched at Lo.-lan, and even then the cities of Khotan and Turkestan were being slowly buried in sand ; and finally, about six hundred years ago a flood is spoken of as destroying a town which may very well have been Loft-lan, or its successor, the Dragon City. The irony of fate is very strange, for when the explorer had carefully sur- veyed the ground between Loii-lan and the present Kara- Koshum Lake, to find, as he expected, that be was travelling across what had been the old Lop-Nor, probably the flattest region on the face of the earth, he found the water advancing to meet him. The waters of the Tarim were apparently seeking once more their original grave in the Lop-Nor Desert. A portion of his main caravan had been ordered to station them- selves by the shores of the Tarim Lakes and burn signal-fires, and the explorer sent a one of,his party to find them. Though the two parties were only two miles apart, it took the unfortu- nate Mussulman five days to get to them, alternately swim- ming and walking round the encroaching arms of the moving lake. We must leave this mysterious lake system for the Tibetan Expedition, but may point out the key which the thoroughgoing observations of the Swedish explorer give to the sudden disappearance of cities in the Asiatic desert
zone. Those fearful sand-storms, the "black tempests" or "kara-burana " of the desert, were trial enough to a desert city, but if the capricious river altered its course and the irrigation canals dried up, instant flight was at once the order of the day in this rainless region. And what applies to Turkestan with its Takla-Makan Desert applies to the so- called deserts of Persia.
Dr. Hedin has certainly made the story of the desert dis- coveries fascinating, but he seldom allows his enthusiasm to master him at any moment during his travels. His very faithfulness and veracity make his patient pages interesting, when other writers would have been hopelessly bored with their task,—the task of describing a journey through some of the most desolate, if impressive, regions on the globe. On the other hand, he seldom rises to any great heights. He is too busy, his purpose is ever before him, and he lacks the requisite imagination. Extreme danger alone rouses him, so that there is nothing in these volumes to compare with the story of that awful struggle across the Takla-Makan seven years ago.
The time had now come for the explorer's grand assault on Tibet. He tells us that his was the biggest caravan ever got together by a traveller in Central Asia. The majority of those who travel at these exhausting heights are reduced to beggary by the time they have penetrated the great mountain barriers, so that the Tibetans have never seen a decently equipped traveller's caravan. Naturally the Tibetans heard of the caravan, and when Dr. Hedin made his dash in disguise with the friendly Lama and the faithful Buriat Cossack, he was soon stopped. (It will be remembered by some people that it was another Russian Buriat of Transbaikalia, one Zybikoff, who reached Lhassa in 1902.) The explorer admits candidly that the behaviour of the Tibetans was admirable, and he seems to have tried their patience to the utmost, threatening to elude their surveillance, and really behaving with an unusual lack of dignity. He himself admitted to the chiefs that in enforcing their policy of isolation they were playing their game in the very best fashion. We think that Dr. Hedin probably does not regard this part of his behaviour with any especial pride. He was doing his very worst for future travellers. Who wants Tibet ? It is like a bone —a very tough, green bone too—between two well-fed dogs : "I don't want it, but you sha'n't have it." The most remarkable features of the subsequent journey to Ladakh were the Tibetan lakes and the terrible effects of the hardships on the caravan. One of these lakes had an extra- ordinary gorge, and the scenery was of the most impressive character. This was the Nakktsong-Tso ; and another lake, the Chargut-Tso, looks like the view up Windermere. The Tso-Ngombo, or Blue Lake, must have some of the finest mountain scenery in the world on its wild shores. Dr. Hedin could count seven and eight successive beaches on these lakes ; they are drying up. As for the great caravan, it dwindled daily, and the explorer found the yak transport of the Tibetans very usefuL He is grateful to the Dalai Lama for that. "It is not without reason," he says, "travellers' routes are marked in red on our maps—their journeys have been made at the price of blood." Forced marching at an altitude of 16,000 ft. with a trade wind blowing and the thermometer often below zero is nothing less than murder to pack animals, except yaks.
The most entertaining portions of these volumes are the occasional descriptions of the members of the caravan. No great explorer—and Sven Hedin must rank second to none— has ever possessed a greater share of the gift of attaching men to his person. The Transbaikal Cossacks come up to the English ideal of faithful servants. Yet even Dr. Hedin says, "Never trust a Mussulman," though one or two passed the ordeal successfully. Central Asia and Tibet exceeds in interest the author's former volume, and no living traveller knows more, or has told us more, about the heart of Asia than this extraordinary man, whose sense of duty—for so he regards mapping unknown regions —never succumbs to the most frightful hardships. We wish be had put a few more names in the Tarim River map, and also in his other maps. He is a little chary of names generally on his itinerary maps, and he uses them so freely in the text. But when we say this we detract little from the value of the most impor- tant and the most valuable book of Asiatic exploration that the present generation has seen.
Previous page
