﻿432 



Canadian Record of Science. 



The most important 

 exploration in Asia is 

 confined to two regions. 



during these years and the immense additions that have 

 been made to our knowledge of its geography. Exploring 

 activity in Asia is not likely to cease, though it is not to 

 ))e expected that its inhospitable centre will ever be so 

 carefully mapped as have been the mountains of Switzer- 

 land. 



desiderata, so far as pioneer 

 concerned, may be said to be 

 In southern and central Arabia 

 there are tracts which are entirely unexplored. It is 

 probable that this unexplored region is in main a sandy 

 desert. At the same time it is, in the south at least, 

 fringed by a border of mountains whose slopes are capable 

 of rich cultivation and whose summits the late Mr. 

 Theodore Bent found, on his last and fatal journey, to be 

 covered with snow. In exploration, as in other directions, 

 it is the unexpected that happens ; and if any traveller 

 cared to face the difficulties — physical, political and 

 religious — which might be met with in southern and 

 central Arabia, he might be able to tell the world a 

 surprising story. 



The other region in Asia where real pioneer work still 

 remains to be done is Tibet and the mountainous districts 

 bordering it on the north and east. Lines of exploration 

 have in recent years been run across Tibet by Russian 

 explorers like Prjevalsky, by Rockhill, Prince Henry of 

 Orleans, and Bonvalot, by Bower, Littledale, Wellby and 

 Malcolm. From the results obtained by these explorers 

 we have formed a fair idea of this, the most extensive, the 

 highest, and the most inhospitable plateau in the world. 

 A few more lines run in well selected directions would 

 probably supply geography with nearly all she wants 

 to learn about such a region, though more minute 

 exploration would probably furnish interesting details 

 as to its geological history. 



