440 



NA TURE 



\August 31, 1882 



sequence within this very plateau of ours, prevented the Tartar 

 invasion from spreading even to Western Europe. Though it 

 is often held that these terrific events have been overruled by 

 Providence for the progress of mankind, still at the time they 

 caused what Gibbon truly calls a shipwreck of nations. Not- 

 with'tanding this, the Tartars won, in a certain sense, an 

 unparalleled success, which is attributed to the geographical 

 circumstances of our plateau. 



The influence of the precipice-, the forests, the prairies, the 

 wild sports, in forming the national character is 'O obvious that 

 it need not be specified. We readily understand how the 

 sturdy mountaineer, the daring hunter, the practised archer be- 

 comes the able soldier. In Mongolia, however, the local 

 speciality was this, that the practically boundless extent of the 

 pasturage and the nutritii us richness of its quality, induced the 

 people to maintain countless horses, cows, buffaloes, sheep, 

 goals, and camels, neglecting the tillage of the soil, never 

 building houses, but living in tents made cf warm felt, accumu- 

 lating a certain sort of rude wealth, still roving and roaming 

 about at some seasons incessantly from one encampment or one 

 glazing-ground to another, dragging with them their families 

 and their effects by means of the pack animals and the roomy 

 waggons drawn by many oxen yoked abreast. Thus was a truly 

 nomadic existence practised on the largest scale ever known. 

 Mong d armies, better drilled, armed, accoutred, and equipped 

 than any forces then known in the civilised world, would 

 emerge from our plateau into the inhabited plains around, and 

 would observe houses and towns for the first time. It is even 

 alleged that some of them had never -een cultivated crops before. 



In this state of existence the temptations to depredation of 

 all sorts were exce sive, and the danger from the climate, the 

 savagery of nature, and the wild beasts as always imminent. 

 Consequently the Mongals were obliged to hold themselves to- 

 gether by the cohesion of families, clans and tribes. Thus by 

 the force of circumstances a social organisation was establi-hed 

 which proved the foundation of a military discipline suitable to 

 the genius of the people, almost self-acting, and unfailing even 

 in the remotest expeditions. The horses, too, upon which the 

 Mongol warriors mainly depended, naturally fell into the 

 training ; being always turned out to graze in herds, they 

 habitually kept together, and the field manoeuvre fixed habits 

 which had been already acquired. It used to be remarked that 

 a line of Mongol cavalry was like a rope or a chain perfectly 

 flexible but never parted. 



The Mongcdian food included little of cereals or vegetables, 

 but consisted mainly of cheese and meat. For stimulating drink 

 there was the fermented mare's milk. The name 'koumis' or 

 'prepared milk,' apparently much esteemed medically now-a- 

 days, is a Mong ilian word. Manifestly, men thus nurtured 

 could live in the saddle day and night, carrying with them their 

 sustenance in the smallest compass, and scarcely halting to eat 

 or drink. Thus the hardihood evinced on [Totracted marches, 

 which would otherwise be incredible, can be accounted for. 



It is probable that this diet while sustaining vivacity produced 

 also a violence of disposition. Certainly, ruthlessness, cruelty, 

 indifference to suffering characterised the Mongols and marred 

 the effect of their grand qualities. Massacres, holocausts, con- 

 flagrations marked their warlike operations. Even famines and 

 epidemics have hardly done more for depopulation than the 

 Mongol conquests. A Mongolian chief would say that the 

 keenest enjoymet in life was to si amp upon a bea'en enemy, to 

 seize his family, and despoil his encampment. 



It is not the purpose of this address to describe the 

 policy of 1 he Mongols or the institutions which they founded 

 in conquered countries. A few salient points onlv have been 

 indicated in reference to the geography of our plateau. It 

 is here, near what i. now known as the upper regions of the 

 Amur, that the Onon, the Orkhon, and the Kerulen, classic 

 streams in Mongol story, take their source. Here is the 

 site of Kara Koron, the emperor's head- quarter encamp- 

 ment. Here the Kurultai assemblies were held to decide the 

 fate of nationalities. Here were the camps, the Urts, and 

 Urdus, rude names at first unpronounceable in the civili-ed 

 world, but soon to become terribly familiar. Here were the 

 hordes mustered under their banners, 1 ach standard having its 

 distinctive colour, the supreme ensign being, however, the yak's 

 tail raised aloft. Hither, also, the corpse of Chinghiz Khan 

 was borne in a cumbrous catafalque, dragged through the deep 

 loam by oxen yoked twenty abreast, while his henchmen chanted 

 a dirge which was a pathetic effusion from the heart of a valiant 



nation, and was full of poetic images drawn from the Mongolian 

 surroundings. 



In the sixth place, though our plateau has possessed, and still 

 possesses, some patches of fine cultiva ion, such as those in the 

 Upper Tarim basin, near Varkand and Kashgar, and some near 

 Lhassain Tibet, still it has comparatively but little of agriculture, 

 of trade, or of industry. Nevertheless it has many natural 

 resource- of value and interest, while its pastoral resources have 

 proved astonishing. Its breed of horses, though by no means 

 the finest, has yet been quite the largest ever known. These 

 horses have never displayed the beauty of the Arabian or the 

 size of the Turkoman breed. They are middle sized, and do 

 not attain the -peed of thoroughbreds. But in nimblenes: amidst 

 rugged ground, in endurance over lengthened distance--, and in 

 preserving their condition with -canty nourishment, they are un- 

 rivalled, 'iheir numbers too may well exercise the imagination 

 of modern breeders. For many years the Tartar emperors 

 maintained in the field at least 500,000 cavalry, for which the 

 horses were drawn chiefly from our plateau. This enormous 

 cavalry forge was engaged in fighting over an area of many 

 thousand miles in length and breadth, during which operations 

 much desperate resistance was encountered. It was occupied 

 in steep ascents and descents, in traversing deserts, in crossing 

 frozen lakes, in swimming rapid rivers. How vastly numerous 

 then must have been tie casualties among these horse-, and how 

 immense the breeding stuiis. I he pa linage too was so potent 

 in nutritive qualities that ordinarily there was risk of animals 

 suffering from repletion, and emaciated creatures rapidly gained 

 flesh and strength. 



Ill other respects too the fauna are noteworthy — the sheep and 

 goats, with wool or down of the softest texture — the buffalo 

 herds and the yaks inured 10 the sharpest cold— the gazelles 

 careering in thousands — the untanieable camel of the desert 

 having a speed and agility unknown in other species — the wild 

 as-es and the white wolves — the waterfowl at times like clouds 

 darkening the air. 



The flora too, though less abundant, has its specialities— the 

 pointed grasses sharp enough to pierce leather, the gigantic 

 rhubarb, the magnificent bully, the branching juniper. 



The mineral resources of the Kuen-lun are certainly enor- 

 mous ; nobody yet knows how great they may prove. Indeed 

 our plateau is remarkable for the antimony, the sul, hur, the 

 saltpetre, the borax, the gold-washings, the turquoise, and the 

 clasic jadestone. 



In the seventh place, the field offered by our plateau for 

 scientific research will be apparent from even a cursory consider- 

 ation of the -tage to which our knowledge has reached. From 

 the second of the two diagrams, which shows in deep pink those 

 of Asia that have been professionally surveyed, in light 

 pink those lhat have been roughly surveyed, in lighter | ink those 

 that have been explored only, and in white those lhat are unex- 

 plored — it will be seen that almost the whole of our plateau is 

 unsurveyed, and that while much of it has been explored more 

 or less, some portions yet a a ait exploration. For some time, 

 however, it has been the sphere chosen by many among the most 

 skilful, 01 during, and intrepid travellers of Europe. The journeys 

 of the Russian Prejevalsky in the Tarim basin and Mongolia, of 

 Potanin and Rafailoff in the same region, of Malussovski near 

 Kobdo, of the French missionaries Gabet and Hue in Mongolia, 

 of the bishop Desgodius in Til.et, of the German Schlagintweit 

 in Turkestan, ofthe Englishmen Forsj lb, Trotter, Johnson, Shaw, 

 Hayward in the Tarim basin, of Wood in the- Paymir, or NcyEHas 

 in Mongolia, of Delmar Morgan in Kulja, of L'ogle and Manning 

 in Tibet, while leaching us very much, have yet left our minds 

 dazzled with a sense of what remains to be learnt. Even the 

 trigonometrical determination of the Himalayan summits by the 

 English Surveyors Genera!, namely, Everest, Waugh, and 

 Walker, the researches of Basevi, Stolicksa, Godwin- Austen, 

 Thomson, Biddulph, in the ;ame quarter, and the Siberian 

 surve)S by the Russians among the Altai and 'lian Shan 

 mountains, have brought us only to the verge of half-di: covered 

 or undiscovered countries. The greatest unexplored region in 

 all Asia, namely the Kuen-lun range, lies in the very heart of 

 our plateau. It is remarkable too lhat if the principal geogra- 

 phical problems awaiting solution in Asia be specified, such as 

 the true and ultimate sources of the Hoang-ho, the Irawady, the 

 i alwin, the Mekhong, the relation of the San-po with the 

 Brahmaputra, the connecting links between the Kuen-lun and 

 the Chinese mountain chains, they will be found to concern our 

 plateau. 



