January 27, 1910] 



NA TURE 



569 



series of soundings over Lake Manasarowar, b)' 

 means of his portable boat. 



On return to Ladak, with characteristic pertinacity, 

 he decided to malie a second expedition bacli again to 

 Tibet, in order to complete his partial exploration of 

 the Trans-Himalaya, as he reflected that, "it was 

 especially irritating to think that others might come 

 here and rob me of these conquests." So with a fresh 

 caravan, got together with the aid of the British 

 officials, he plunged south once more through the 

 terrible Tibetan deserts, and much astonislied the 

 discomfited Tibetan chiefs by his reappearance 

 amongst them a year after they had got rid of him 

 with such infinite pains. In this latter traverse, three 

 more passes were surveyed, with the result, to quote 

 the author's own words, that, "When I passed over 

 the Trans-Himalaya for the eighth tiine at Surnge-la, 

 I had the satisfaction of seeing all the old hypotheses 

 fall down like a house of cards and a new ground plan 

 laid down on the map of Asia, where before the blank 

 patch yawned with its alluring " Unexplored." This 

 mountain-system, it is remarked, cannot be called "a 

 range," because it is a collection of several ranges, 

 more or less parallel or branching off at various 

 angles ; Dr. Hedin, however, will find that somewhat 

 similar features are displayed by the Himalayas them- 

 selves. 



The narrative of the two years' strenuous journey- 

 ings for the survey of these formidable mountains, is 

 w-ritten in a vigorous, direct, style, which reflects the 

 cheery optimism of this pioneer traveller as he pushed 

 on undaunted, in the face of endless hardships and 

 difficulties. It also shows him animating his men with 

 something of his own abounding enthusiasm, without 

 which, indeed, the exploration could never have been 

 accomplished. The reader feels the swing of the 

 caravan moving through the pages, with the thrill 

 of reality and a pervading sense of danger ahead ; 

 though to many readers the repetition from day to 

 day of the details of camp routine, and the reiterated 

 records of the grim struggles of the men and the 

 sufferings and painful deaths of the dwindling bag- 

 gage animals, will doubtless make somewhat 

 monotonous and unpleasant reading after a time. 



Besides the geographical record, so important in 

 itself, and the camp episodes, there is little else that is 

 new. Remarkably few references occur in respect to 

 natural history ; scarcely any mention or passing 

 recognition is made of wild animals, or plants, or 

 minerals, such as we expect in the journal of a 

 scientific traveller; and the few remarks which occur 

 in regard to the people and their customs exhibit a 

 lack of familiarit}' with authentic sources of 

 precise information, and the well-known researches of 

 Rockhill and others. Incidental reference is made to 

 a collection of rock-specimens, the description of which 

 by specialists, is promised along with the detailed 

 maps, which will doubtless be accompanied by an 

 analysis of other objects collected, though no 

 mention is made of them. The young Indian 

 elephant of the Tashi Lama, we are told, 

 "is the only one of his species in the whole 

 country " ; but the Talai Lama, we know, has (or 

 had in 1904) a much larger tusker, a present from 

 the Sikhim raja, which had survived the arctic 

 winters of many years at Lhasa, and was housed in 

 a grove near the British mission camp outside that 

 city in 1904. " A Bod or Buddhist " is spoken of as 

 if these two terms were equivalent, whereas the 

 former means a Tibetan or inhabitant of "Bod or Tibet. 

 The " Bothiyas " (sic) are described as " a mixed 

 people sprung partly from Indian and partly from 

 Tibetan elements," whilst in reality, " Bhotiya " is 

 merely the Indian designation of the Tibetan race or 

 NO. 2100, VOL. 82] 



people of Bod. A want of precision in the spelling of 

 several of the vernacular place-names is noticeable in 

 a professedly geographical work, thus " Sekiya " 

 invariably occurs in the text for the well-known 

 monastery and sect of Sakya or .Saskyas, and " Yere- 

 tsangpo " for the Yaru (or " upper ") Tsangpo ; and 

 many of the names are spelt phonetically according to 

 no regular system. To say " Hor or Bod-yul " is 

 equivalent to saying "Turkish or Tibet." In regard 

 to the term used for the great Manasarowar Lake by 

 D'Anville in his old map, namely " Ma-pama Talai" 

 or Ma-pama Lake, Dr. Hedin gives "Ma-vang" as 

 the correct form, but this latter is merely the vulgar 

 vocalization of the name, which is spelt and properly 

 pronounced as " Ma-pam " ; and our author sagely states 

 that "D'Anville might have added that the Chinese 

 and Talai or Dalai means ocean," and that it was used 

 to imply that this particular lake was larger than the 

 other neighbouring lakes mentioned in his text. This, 

 however, is not correct; "Talai" is not Chinese, but 

 a Mongol word, and it is applied to all the lakes in 

 that neighbourhood, as well as throughout the 

 Northern Himalayas, irrespective of their size ; and 

 in the abbreviated form of " Tdl " it was imported 

 into Northern India by the Moghal section of the 

 Mongols, and is now naturalised there as the current 

 vernacular name for a lake. Deficiencies of this kind, 

 however, can be corrected in another edition, and in 

 no wise belittle the outstanding importance of Dr. 

 Hedin 's splendid geographical achievements. 



These attractive volumes, with their wealth of 

 sketches and beautiful photographs, deserve nothing 

 but praise, and form a fitting record of Sir Sven 

 Hedin 's magnificent pioneer work amongst one 

 of the most forbidding mountain ranges in 

 the world. This work, too, is of such im- 

 portance to Indian hydrography as to have 

 gained for its author, amongst other well-earned 

 honours, a knighthood of the Indian Empire. It is 

 also pleasing to observe that his men have not been 

 forgotten, for the thirty-seven Asiatics who followed 

 the explorer faithfully through Tibet, and, as 

 the author generously admits, "contributed in no 

 small degree to the successful issue and results of 

 the expedition," have been rewarded with gold and 

 silver medals, bestowed by the King of Sweden. 



COLO UR-BLINDNESS. 



FOR a considerable time past dissatisfaction has 

 been felt in certain quarters with the methods 

 adopted by the Board of Trade in examining in colour- 

 vision candidates for certificates as master or mate in 

 the mercantile marine. On June 30, 1909, Lord 

 Muskerry directed attention to the matter in the House 

 of Lords, using the cases of Mr. W. H. Glover and 

 Mr. John Trattles as the text of his argument, and 

 moving that a Select Committee be appointed to con- 

 sider the conditions under which eyesight tests for the 

 mercantile marine certificates were conducted. Lord 

 Hamilton of Dalzell, in reply, stated that during the 

 last four years 25,151 candidates were examined; of 

 these 239 failed in the colour-vision tests; 64 appealed, 

 with the result that 27 passed and 37 were rejected. 

 The tests, based upon the report of a committee of 

 the Royal Society, which sat at the request of the 

 Board of Trade in 1S90, were considered to be efficient 

 as at present carried out. He held that no case had 

 been made out for the appointment of a Select Com- 

 mittee. The Marquis of Salisbury said he had, per- 

 haps, a special claim to be heard in this matter, be- 

 cause he was colour-blind himself. He was convinced 

 that colour-blindness was capricious ; on some days 

 he was very much more colour-blind than on other 



