128 



NA TURE 



[Uecembek 8, 1898 



Dr. Hedin's work was divided into several expeditions, 

 between which he rested for a few months at a time at 

 Kashgar and other Asiatic cities. The first journey, after 

 driving across the Kirghiz steppe round the north of Lake 

 Aral to Tashkent, was the crossing of the Pamirs in the 

 winter of 1893 by a road traversed in the open season by 

 the Russian garrison of Fort Pamir, and kept open for 

 their mails all the year. The most interesting incident 

 of this journey was the sounding of the great Kara Kul 

 by means of holes cut in the ice. The lake is without 

 outlet and salt, with an area approaching 150 square 

 miles, and the elevation of its surface abo\e sea-level is 

 13,000 feet; it is completely surrounded by lofty moun- 

 tains. The lake is divided by a low peninsula into two 

 basins ; the eastern, in which three soundings were 

 made, varied from 41 to 63 feet in depth, with a temper- 

 ature of from 34 '2 to 35 '2 at the bottom, and the ice 

 was from 3 feet to 3 feet 6 inches thick. The western 

 basin was tested by four soundings, of which the shal- 

 lowest was 256 feet with a bottom temperature of 35"'8, 

 and the deepest 756 feet with a bottom temperature of 

 38 '3. The thickness of the ice here was only from i foot 

 4 inches to i foot 9 inches ; and the temperature of the 

 air was - 20' F. at night. The depth, although con- 

 siderable, should hardly, however, be called "abysmal," 

 even for a lake. 



The second piece of work undertaken was the study of 

 the great snow-clad mountain Mustagh-ata, which is the 

 loftiest summit of the Pamirs, towering to 25,600 feet. 

 Dr. Hedin ascended its slopes to the height of 20,660 

 feet, where he passed the night. To this elevation he 

 was able to ride on a yak, and bring up his whole camp 

 equipment : so that a trained mountaineer to whom it is 

 a pleasure to climb higher than other people, should here 

 ha\e a good opportunity for making a " record" climb 

 from a comfortable base. Ur. Hedin, however, was not 

 a mountaineer, and defeated in the attempt to climb, he 

 made a careful study of the glaciers all round the moun- 

 tain. The snow-field of Mustagh-ata measures roughly 

 10 miles by 6, and from the snow-line valleys radiate in 

 all directions, many of them occupied by great glaciers, 

 the streams from which are collected in rivers on the 

 plain, which flow round the base of the mountain for 

 three-quarters of its circumference before they turn finally 

 to north and south. The work on Mustagh-ata occu- 

 pied, with occasional intervals, the time from .\pril to 

 October 1894, and during much of this time Dr. Hedin 

 lived amongst the Kirghiz as one of themselves, and 

 obtained a great deal of information as to their customs 

 and mode of life. The winter was spent in Kashgar, 

 where Mr. and Mrs Littledale happened to be staying at 

 the time, preparing for their great journey across Tibet 

 from north to south. 



In February 1895, Dr. Hedin set out on his most 

 adventurous journey, in which he barely escaped with 

 his life, in the desert of Taklamakan. Crossing the 

 Yarkand-daria at 39' E., the desert was crossed in a 

 more or less easterly direction. The party had eight 

 camels, of which only one survived ; and the guide with 

 another man, who were believed to hive treacherously 

 taken a smaller supply of water than was ordered, perished 

 of thirst in the sand, possibly through being unable to desert 

 so soon as they had planned. Fifteen days were expected 

 to suffice to reach the Khotan-daria, but twenty-six were 

 required. During the greater part of this time the scenery 

 was one monotonous waste of yellow sand dunes, the 

 surface unvaried by a vestige of vegetation, or even by a 

 stone. The largest dunes were as much as 200 feet in 

 height with a ctescentic ground plan, and exceedingly 

 steep on the leeward slopes. It was impossible to follow a 

 straight course, and as the intermediate low ground was 

 often occupied by "pools" of the finest sand, in which 

 the camels sunk deeply, it was often necessary to wind 

 over the slopes, following the crests of successive dunes. 



NO. I 5 19, VOL. 59] 



No living thing was to be seen. When at last Hedin 

 emerged from the sand, and struck the Khotan daria, he 

 was alone, on foot, and in rags. By carrying back a 

 supply of water in his boots he saved one of his men ; 

 two others with one camel also escaped, and brought some 

 of the instruments and all the note-books ; so that what 

 at one time appeared likely to be irretrievable disaster 

 was averted, but narrowly, as he was a week without food. 

 The river was followed northward to .\ksu, and Kashgar 

 re-entered on June 21. While waiting for the new instru- 

 ments, which had been telegraphed for to Europe, Dr. 

 Hedin took another run to the Pamirs, a sort of pleasure 

 trip, for he had the good fortune to share in the festivities 

 of the .\nglo-Russian Boundary Commission. 



In December 1895 he left Kashgar finally for further 

 explorations in the desert, travelled to Khotan through 

 Varkand, and along the southern margin of the desert, 

 and collected so much material that he proposes to 

 make another book of it. The kara-buran, or black sand- 

 storm, which is common in that region at certain seasons, 

 seems to be similar to the .American tornado. This type 

 of storm occurs only in summer, and almost always in the 

 afternoon, rarely lasts above an hour, comes more fre- 

 quently from the west than from the east, and is so 

 furious in its intensity as to sweep sheep away bodily. 

 .Another strip of the desert was crossed from the Khotann 

 daria to the Keriya-daria,a river never before visited by 4 

 European ; and on the way Dr. Hedin discovered the 

 ruins of an ancient city, called Takla-makan, built of wood, 

 and full of relics of an ancient time, when the prevailing 

 religion was Buddhism. The curious appearance of the 

 ruins as they project from the sea of dunes is well broughl 

 out in the illustration on the next page. These dunes haw 

 a uniform angle of '>,y with the horizon on the steep lefr 

 ward slope, while the windward slope varies from 20' toa» 

 little as I' ; a calculation gave about 160 feet per annum 

 as their average rate of advance. The grassy borders of 

 the Keriya-daria were found inhabited by a race of shy 

 shepherds, who rarely visit a town, and had never seen a 

 European before. The desert margins abounded in wild 

 camels, several of which were shot. From all Dr. Hedin 

 could see and hear of them he was convinced that they 

 are descendants of the tame camel, their present wild life 

 being a reversion to nature, not a primitive state. 



Proceeding northwards, the Tarim river was crossed 01 

 the ice in February ; this river, in the latitude of Naplei 

 is said to remain frozen for three months of the year, a 

 good example of the effect of continental climate, although 

 the atmosphere is too dry to furnish any snowfall 



The Lop-nor region was made the object of careful 

 study, and geographically this is one of the mosi 

 interesting parts of the whole book. .A controversy 

 to the character of Lop-nor has been going on for 

 many years. The great Russian explorer Przhevalsky 

 explored a lake which he held to be the ancient Lop-nor ; 

 but it was fresh, yet without outlet, which proves that 

 it must be of very recent formation. Richthofen pointed 

 out that the ancient Lop-nor, placed by Chinese geo- 

 graphers a degree further north, must be salt if it still 

 exists ; but Hedin discovered that there is a very recent 

 lake which he believes reoccupies the western part of 

 the bed of the old Lop-nor, which has been nearly filled 

 up by desert sand. The whole region is almost at the 

 same level, and the lakes are so thickly overgrown with 

 huge reeds, that it is very difficult to trace the boundaries 

 of the shallow sheets of water, which evidently shift in 

 position from time to time as the rivers of the desert also 

 do. The Lop-men are very expert canoists ; but the 

 translation is obviously in error in speaking of them as 

 "rowing" the long narrow canoes with "oars," which 

 would be impossible without outriggers ; the illustrations 

 show them paddling by means of paddles, a very different 

 method of propulsion. 



The last piece of exploration recorded in the book has 



