KNOWLEDGE. 



[January, 1904. 



by water ! Not so very long ago I had nearly died there 

 for want of it." 



And not only did the scenery change as they drifted on, 

 but the fiery heats of summer were succeeded by the 

 violent autumn storms, and then the winter crept steadily 

 and remorselessly on. The surface of the river one morning 

 was spangled with patches of ice. Then a fringe of ice 

 crept out day after day further from the banks, and the 

 air was full of murmurs from the grmiliug ice, but there 

 was still time to go many miles before the passage was 

 blocked completely by the ice. Then winter quarters were 

 formed, and the caravan, which had made the long journey 

 by land, was successfully joined. " Never," writes Dr. 

 Hedin, "was a journey of that magnitude carried through 

 so comfortably and so successfully." And we believe him, 

 for with little danger and with no great difficulty for so 

 resourceful and intrepid an explorer, a thousand miles of a 

 practically unknown river was most minutely investigated 

 in the space of some three mouths. 



Dr. Hedin is not one to rest on his oars. No sooner 

 had he got his winter quarters comfortably arranged than 

 he started out on a perilous journey southwards across the 

 Takla Makau Desert to Cherchen, situated on the river of 

 that name. This desert journey in the middle of a very 

 hard winter, with temperatures of many degrees below 

 zero, and frequent blinding suow-strirms, was a very trying 

 piece of work, but it was accomplished with the loss of 

 only one camel. 



After an excursion to the south-west from Cherchen, 

 which involved a very cold ride of 20U miles. Dr. Hedui 

 brought his caravan back to his winter ijuarters, travelling 

 for the most part by the ancient bed of the Cherchen 

 River. Meanwhile his head-quarters camp had become 

 "an important market, well known throughout all the Lop 

 country, and immediately outside its precincts there grew 

 up a ring of small ' suburbs,' where tailors, smiths, and 

 other handicraftsmen came and plied their several 

 trades." And Dr. Hedin became quite a king in the 

 Lo]) country, and was able to set right many injustices to 

 the poor. 



In the springs of 1900 and 1901, Dr. Hedin turned his 

 attention to the district of the famous Lt)p-nor and its 

 sister lakes. His work here was very important and 

 interesting. The Tarim empties itself into the great 

 depression of the Lop Desert. It has been long suspected 

 that the lake into which this great river discharges its 

 waters has shifted from time to time. Dr. Hedin has 

 amply proved this to be the fact, by an examination of the 

 Kara-Koshun Lakes, into which the river now empties 

 itself, and by a careful survey and levelling of that part 

 of the desert in which the old lake was suspected to have 

 existed. Moreover, he found that the present lake was 

 actually travelling back to its old bed. " Nor is it sur- 

 prising," he writes, " that such should be the case in this 

 desert, which my survey pi-oved to be almost pert'ectly 

 horizontal. While the Lake of Kara-Koshun, which had 

 existed a long time in its southern half, was being filled 

 up with mud, drift-sand, and decaying vegetation, the arid 

 northern half was being excavated and blown away by the 

 winds, and thus being hollowed out to a deeper level. 

 Now these changes of niveau are determined by purely 

 mechanical laws and local atmospheric conditions ; con- 

 sequently the lake which serves as the terminal reservoir 

 of the Tarim system, must be extremely sensitive to their 

 influence. . . . Then vegetation and animal life, as 

 well as the fishing population, inevitably accompany the 

 water as it migrates, and the old lake-bed dries up." In 

 connection with this last observation, Dr. Hedin made a 

 most important historical discovery. In the spring of 

 1900 one of his men found by a lucky chance, in the middle 



of the desert, some old ruins. The next spring these were 

 searched for and rediscovered. The material obtauied 

 from them has not yet been fully worked out, but enough 

 has been done to show that this spot, on the shores of the 

 ancient Lop-nor, was the site of Lou-Ian, an important 

 country in olden times, since it was situated between the 

 great northern highway and the great southern highway 

 from China to Europe. Long known historically to the 

 Chinese, its position hitherto has never been accurately 

 fixed. "How difterent, how exceedingly different this 

 region was now compared with wliat it must have been 

 formerly! Here was now not a single fallen leaf; not a 

 single desert spider. . . There was only one power 



which brought sound and movement into these dreary, 

 lifeless wastes, namely, the wind. ... I can imagine how 

 beautiful a spot it was — the temple .... embowerered 

 amid the shady poplar groves, with an arm of the lake 

 touching it. . . . Round about it were the scattered 

 villages. -. . . Southwards stretched far and wide the 

 bluish-green waters of Lop-nor, set about with forest 

 groves. . . . Look upon that picture and then look 

 upon the picture of the scene as it is now ! Au endless 

 array of cenotaphs ! And why is this ? It is simjily 

 because a river, the Tarim, has changed its course." For 

 an account of the many difficulties, hardships, and dangers 

 that the explorer and his party experienced in the explora- 

 tion oE this great desert and the surrounding country, we 

 must refer our readers to the traveller's own modest but 

 giaphi<- account. 



Dr. Hedin's ne,Kt and last great journey was an 

 exceedingly long and trying one across the northern part 

 of Tibet. For this journey he organised an immense 

 caravan of camels, horses, and asses, but so difficult was 

 the country, and so great were the hardships, chiefly on 

 account of most of the time being spent at great altitudes, 

 that very few of these animals survived, while several men 

 died from the same cause. Dr. Hedin is not one to make 

 much of hardships and difficulties, and his statement with 

 regard to this journey is therefore significant. " For my 

 part," he writes, " I would rather cross the Desert of Gobi 

 a dozen times than travel through Tibet once again in 

 winter. It is impossible to form any conception of what 

 it is like ; it is a vei'itable via dolorosa .' " And we 

 might add that there would have been little ciiauce of any 

 less hardy or experienced traveller getting through at all. 

 During this journey Dr. Hedin made a ]ilucky dash 

 towards Lassa in the disguise of a Mongol pilgrim. But 

 the Dalai Lama had got wind of his big caravan 

 far away in the mountains, and he was stopped veiy 

 firmly, but certainly not unkindly, on the threshold 

 almost of his goal, and eventually escorted back to his 

 caravan. After this the Tibetans continually escorted 

 the caravan, keeping a small army on its flank, and 

 effectually preventmg the explorer from going to the south. 

 In view of our present advance into Southern Tibet, 

 it is of interest to note that Dr. Hedm considers that the 

 Tibetan's " policy of isolation during the last half century 

 or so has not been dictated by religious, but by political 

 motives. Their tactics, peaceful, but so far successful, 

 have aimed at guarding their frontiers against Europeans." 

 None but Europeans are tabooed. " Still Tibet will have 

 to meet her destiny," says the author, and the day now 

 seems near at hand 



As to the narrative in general, we may say that it is a 

 most engrossing account of a very remarkable series of 

 explorations. The book is well produced in every way. 

 It has most excellent maps, and the illustrations from the 

 author's photographs (over which he took the greatest 

 possible pains) and sketches are exceptionally good. — ■ 

 H, F. W. 



