A SUMMER RIDE THROUGH WESTERN TIBET.
A Summer Ride through Western Tibet. By Jane E. Duncan. (Smith, Elder, and Co. 14s. net.)—This is one of the most delightful books of travel it has ever been our good fortune to come across. Miss Duncan makes no pretence that when, in the spring of 1904, finding herself in Kashmir, she made up her mind to escape from intolerable heat by making her way to Leh, in Western Tibet, she undertook &journey of exceptional difficulty and danger. On the contrary, she expresses her hope that the impres- sion she gives of "the charm and ease" of travelling in Western Tibet "may encourage those who have leisure and opportunity to set out and experience it for themselves." No doubt Miss Duncan owed a good deal to what she terms "the skill, energy, and resourcefulness" of her servant Aziz Khan, and the attention of her colleagues ; but she must have owed a good deal more to her own strength. Here is one of her " confessions " on that head:—" At sea-level the pressure of the air on the square inch is 15/2 pounds ; at 18,000 feet, a little higher than the Chang La, it is 7.66 pounds, and this reduction brings on headache, dizzi- ness, and bleeding at the nose and ears in many cases ; while if the heart is at all weak the consequences may be very serious. Even hill ponies sometimes spin round and drop down dead ; but in my own case I felt the air so exhilarating that I could have laughed and sung from pure joy if there had been any one to keep me in countenance, and I was in the saddle for seven and a half hours continuously that day without feeling tired." Miss Duncan tells the story of her journeys to Leh and Himis, where she saw the devil dance of masked lamas, of her sojourning at various stations, and of her return down the Gilgit road to Kashmir, with all the simplicity of a good letter-writer. But her book is also specially valuable for the information it gives about the archaeology and music of Tibet, in connexion with which she has been greatly aided by the Rev. A. II. Francke, who is stationed at the Moravian Mission, Khalatse. The photographic and other illustrations of this volume add greatly to its value. Miss Duncan's success is a tribute to the "simple lifo " as led nowadays by sensible folk. "There was no tinned meat or fish of any description among the stores, and I have been told since that I probably owed my unbroken health to this circumstance ; my being practically a teetotaler was certainly
also in my favour A bottle of whisky and one of brandy were taken in case of illness; but the brandy bottle was broken when it was still almost full, and there were the remains of the whisky in my flask more than a year afterwards, though I had shared the contents among passing travellers."
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