350 THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



the "acme of 'oskawild' exaggeration and sensationalism run mad." 



"It is patent on the face of it. But, there Landor has only been 

 doing in book form what the average newspaper sensation-monger 

 does daily in newspaper form. It is none of my business. It is the 

 stuff that pays, though. Were I to write the record of my own Asiatic 

 travels, there would not be a single sensationalism in the book. So it 

 would not pay." 



The original idea was to proceed overland from Lasa to Pekin and 

 Japan; but, in Indasia, "man proposes and fever disposes." A reduc- 

 ing- sapping type of remittent set in after prolonged divings into the 

 poorest and most unsanitary quarters of Lasa, in connection with the 

 sanitation thereof; and after only three weeks in this theocracy, a re- 

 treat south was made back again over the Himalayas to the Ganges; 

 thence to Ceylon for six weeks convalescence, sea bathing the reme- 

 dy sought. 



Quitting Ceylon by the Russian liner "Tambof" on January 6 

 1896, Japan was reached (via Singapore and Formosa) three weeks 

 later, and a couple of months spent touring therein. 



Proceeding to Korea, various surveys were effected along the east 

 coast and a landing made at Gensau, with the idea of proceeding 

 overland to the Russian frontier north, but the Japanese steamer 

 luckily continuing on to Vladivostok, that port in extreme eastern 

 Cibiria was reached 1 (13) April, and a landing effected amid the worst 

 snowstorm lasting all day Lodian saw during his subsequent nearly 

 two years' journeyings across the Russian union. A typical Cibirian 

 reception ! 



And official warning boards in four languages notwithstanding 

 within two hours of landing he was up among the slippery mounts 

 and fortresses overlooking the harbor.. The very furiosity of the un- 

 abating whirlwinds of snow was a sort of factor of safety. Off guard! 



After a fortnight's preparations for the long overland trans- Asiatic 

 journey to the Ural mountains, and Europe, Lodian quitted Vladivos- 

 tok 18 (30) April, and Xabapobck 3 (15) June; ascended the Amur to 

 its head -waters; crossed the labloni mountains afoot; then always 

 alone, the Altai spur-ranges, circumventing the southern end of the 

 great Baikal, examining throughout the strategic features of the 

 trans- Cibirian railroad, and reached Ipkytck (Irkutsk) the 20th of 

 August. This concluded the first surveying detail. 



Using Ipkytck as a base of operations for a couple of months, he 

 reconnoitered the country north and south; and 16 (28) October, com- 

 menced the second section of the surveys over the snow- ice to the 

 Ural range. It is probably the first through-winter survey on a 3,000- 

 mile scale of magnitude ever made in the history of surveying or en- 

 gineering inspection; but Lodian accomplished it all, and was only 

 once (nearly) lost in the great Cibirian forests. On one occasion he 

 experienced 52 degrees below zero centigrade (equaling, say, 65 below 



