TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION E. G65 



even if political objections did not exist. In Central and Soutliern Arabia there is 

 undoubtedly still much to learn, but of the remaining countries which intervene 

 between the Mediterranean and India, of Persia, Afghanistan, and Baluchistan, it 

 can only be said that the work of the geographical pioneer has already ended 

 where that of the engineer and surveyor has ccramenced. In the Furthest East 

 again^in Manchuria, China, Tonkin, and Siam — there is much more room for the 

 practical exploration of the road and railway maker than there is for the irre- 

 sponsible career of the geographical traveller. The highway from China to India 

 is almost as well known as that from Ijondon to India, and the activity of railway 

 enterprise in the south of Asia bids fair to rival the triumphs of Siberia. It is 

 only in the central deserts of Mongolia and the wastes of Tibet spreading 

 southwards to the Himalayas that we can find untrodden areas of any great 

 magnitude, and even in Central Asia before venturing on a statement of future 

 possibilities in the field of exploration, it would be well to wait for the records 

 of that most intrepid traveller, Sven Iledin, who promises us material of scien- 

 tific and historical interest as the result of his last three years' travel far in 

 excess of the monumental contributions which he has already made public. 

 Historically the interest of the world of inquiry in Asia where we find the origin 

 of the great races of the world and the birthplace of all religions must always be 

 immense ; but that history can only be elucidated by a clear illustration of the 

 great highways of the Continent which were open to the vast migratory move- 

 ments of mankind in prehistoric periods. We do not in the least understand the 

 condition of climate, nor are we quite certain even of the relative distribution of 

 land and water in High Asia in the days when its swarming population first began 

 to flow south and west, carrying the elements of a language which we have been 

 accustomed to regard as primeval into the swamps and plains which lay beyond 

 the Himalayas or the Caspian. It is only through geographical research that some 

 dim outline of those early stories can be realised ; and although the researches of 

 Stein and the marvellous discoveries of Sven iledin around the ancient lake 

 distiict of Lob Nor will, after all, only throw the world's history back for a few 

 centuries, it is by means of these first steps backward that we can feel our way to 

 an appreciation of the earlier processes of this phase of human evolution. Nor in 

 the interests of utilitarian commercial speculation is geographical research in Asia 

 yet to be set aside. We indeed know comparatively nothing of its resources in 

 mineral wealth. It is quite within the bounds of possibility that one of the great 

 central treasure houses of nature lies enveloped in the geological axis of the highest 

 mountains of the world, and that we may yet be enabled to explain why every 

 river which flows from Tibet washes down gold in its bed. But this will only be 

 when the Tibetan Lama is prepared to shake hands with the Uitlander ; and I fear 

 that recent South African history will not encourage the embrace. ^leanwhile 

 there is no more promising field still open to the bond-Jide explorer than that of 

 Tibet and the farthest ranges of the Himalayas. Few people are aware how vast 

 an extent of the Himalayan area still remains untrodden by any European. This 

 is due to no want of enterprise on the part of our Indian surveyors and political 

 ofUcials. It is due partly to physical inaccessibility, and partly to that intense 

 (and easily understood) objection to the interference of the stranger in which 

 many of our transfrontier neighbours permit themselves to indulge. Nevertheless 

 would I commend to those who still desire to walk in the rough and thorny path 

 of pioneer geographical discovery a similar enterprise to that of our aforetime 

 Secretary, Mr. Douglas Freshfield, who lately succeeded in passing beyond the 

 bounds of official exploration into the Eastern Himalayas. AVe have had many 

 travellers in the Himalayas, but they have not always distinguished between the 

 fascinating pleasures of romantic adventure and the earnest pursuit of geographical 

 business. 



Study of Glaciers. 



To Mr. Freshfield we certainly owe an introduction to a new vista of great 

 scientific interest in the study of the formation and movements of glaciers. Here, 

 perhaps, we are treading gently on the skirts of geological science ; but I have nevet 



