Hedin's Explorations in Central Asia 395 



in a portion of the Chinese Empire!), 

 and somewhat amused at the warnings 

 addressed to him by King Oscar, the 

 Swedish Minister for Foreign Affairs, 

 and numerous other friends, to the effect 

 that he should be careful not to expose 

 himself to the cruelty of the Chinese, 

 while he laughed at the idea that he 

 might be compelled to leave his work 

 unfinished and return to Europe at once. 



In Chaklik, he says, though it is a 

 town in the middle of the Celestial Em- 

 pire, there are only fifteen Chinese, and 

 these were mortally afraid of him and 

 his Russian escort of four Cossacks. 

 The}' did everything he commanded, 

 procuring camels, horses, and provisions 

 for him without delay and otherwise 

 carrying out his behests with the great- 

 est promptitude. Dr. Sven Hedin's 

 next line of march will be through 

 Tibet, and there, of course, as he re- 

 marks, there are no Chinese. 



Looking back over his work from 

 Chaklik, Dr. Sven Hedin is fully satis- 

 fied with the results he has obtained. 

 He has followed a different plan of work 

 from that which he pursued on his first 

 expedition, in 1 893-' 97. Then he not 

 onl}^ took observations and made notes, 

 but also worked at the books he in- 

 tended to publish on his return. On 

 this expedition he has done nothing of 

 the latter kind of work, but has left it 

 all to be done when he reaches home. 

 He had already, when writing, com- 

 piled 726 sheets of maps, 150 of them 

 large sheets. 



He calculates that he has more than 

 twice the cartographical material he ac- 

 cumulated on his last expedition, and 

 hopes to be able to publish it in a large 

 atlas of some 60 or 70 maps on a scale 

 which will permit of the details being 



shown. The scientific results of all his 

 geographical, geological, and hydro- 

 graphical studies he proposes to publish 

 in two large volumes of 500 pages each, 

 which will form a text to the atlas. Dr. 

 Hedin has such a wealth of material to 

 draw upon that he will find it very dif- 

 ficult to compress the popular narrative 

 which he hopes to publish into two mod- 

 erate volumes. He hopes, however, to 

 do so. 



As to his future plans. Dr. Hedin 

 does not now think that he will reach 

 Europe this year. When writing last 

 he proposed to spend some eight or ten 

 days at Chaklik, and then, having pre- 

 pared his caravan very carefully for the 

 last stage of his great journey, to cross 

 Tibet diagonally from Temirlik to the 

 sources of the Indus, passing, if possi- 

 ble, a little to the north of Lake Mana- 

 sarowar. As he travels slowly and 

 maps carefully. Dr. Sven Hedin expects 

 that this march will occupy the rest of 

 this year. If it can be arranged, he 

 w^ould like to visit Lord Curzon in Cal- 

 cutta ; then, returning to his caravan, 

 proceed as quickly as possible to Kash- 

 gar via Ladak. He intended to send 

 all his collections and unnecessary lug- 

 gage — fifteen horses' load — direct to 

 Kashgar from Chaklik. From Kasli- 

 gar. Dr. Hedin does not feel that he 

 could return direct to Europe on ac- 

 count of his Cossacks, who have ren- 

 dered him invaluable services, and to 

 whom he has become quite attached. 

 These he feels bound to leave in none 

 but a Russian town. Altogether, there- 

 fore, it will be about a year from the 

 date of his last letters before European 

 geographers can receive Dr. Sven Hedin 

 with the welcome w^'hich he has so well 

 earned. 



