OcTOBER 9, 1913] 
NATURE 
167 
TRAVEL IN TIBET. 
(1) |B a third volume Dr. Sven Hedin concludes 
the popular account of his Tibetan expedi- 
tion of 1905-8, of which the main instalment was 
published four years ago. The present volume 
collects “all the material for which there was no 
room” in the previous two tomes. ‘This includes 
a description of the explorer’s journey north- 
wards from the Manasarowar Lake to the source of 
the Indus, which Dr. Hedin 
was the first European 
actually to penetrate, and of 
the well-known route from 
that. lake along ‘he’ Sutlej 
Valley back to, Simla. 
Added .to this are mis- 
cellaneous extracts from the 
books of previous writers 
and travellers on a variety 
of Tibetan topics, also a 
polemical defence of the 
author’s discovery of the 
“Trans-Himalaya,” a claim 
which has been disputed by 
a writer in the Geographical 
Journal, on the ground that 
the existence of that range 
was undoubtedly known in 
a general way over a gener- 
ation ago. The _ breezy, 
rollicking narrative reflects 
the abounding enthusiasm 
of the author, and couched 
largely in dialogue form it 
reads almost like a romance, 
conveying at times the im- 
pression of a holiday romp 
rather than a rigorous jour- 
ney achieved only by the 
painful toil of man and 
beast. 
Of the scientific results, 
“which will shortly be 
issued,” it is mentioned that 
the geological specimens 
(117 in number) have 
enabled Prof. A. Hennig, of 
Lund, to say that the older 
sedimentary rocks of the 
Trans-Himalaya generally 
resemble those found on the 
northern flanks of the Hima- 
layas near Gyantse and 
Lhasa in Central Tibet. 
They consist of Jurassic 
quartzites and _ phyjllitic 
schists, with subordinate beds of © slaty 
crystalline limestone, which is so strongly meta- 
morphosed that if it did originally contain fossil 
remains these are quite destroyed. The series is 
penetrated by an intrusive formation which has 
By 
(London: Macmillan 
1 (1) ‘*Trans-Himalaya: Discoveries and Adventures in Tibet." 
Sven Hedin. Vol. iii. Pp. xv+426+plates+maps. 
and Co., Ltd., 1913.) Price 15s. net. 
(2) ee The Land of the Blue Poppy: Travels of a Naturalist in Eastern 
Tibet.” By F. Kingdon Ward. Pp. xii+283+xxxix+plates+s5 maps. 
(Cambridge University Press, 1913.) Price res. net. ; 
NO. 2293, VOL. 92| 
suffered metamorphosis by pressure, and therefore 
is older than the other. The eruptive formation 
is obviously part of that found in both the eastern 
and western Himalayas, and ascribed to the 
| ISocene age, and consists in the Trans-Himalaya 
| of intrusive granites, pegmatites, porphyries, &c., 
with vitrified surface lavas, basalts, and sub-aérial 
| volcanic tuffa. It is noteworthy that the Brahma- 
|putra Valley, which separates the Himalayas from 
*Fic.{1.--‘ I dangle between Heaven and the murderous Sutlej.” 
From 
“* Trans-Himalaya.” 
the Trans-Himalaya, must be considered as “a 
deeply excavated erosion-valley, and that faults 
do not play the leading part here which Oswald 
has assigned to them in his article based on Dr. 
Sven Hedin’s preliminary communications.” 
Some mistakes are noticeable in respect to the 
legends and etymologies of the names of the great 
rivers rising in the vicinity of Mount Kailas, the 
Hindu Olympus, and require emendation. They 
