PREFACE 



The progress of geographiqal exploration in all parts 

 of the world has been more rapid during the last few 

 years than at any previous period of the world's 

 history. How far this is to be attributed to George 

 Stephenson's epoch-tnaking invention it is difficult 

 to say, but the greatest tribute to the memory of 

 that great nia:n, to my mind, is the enormous stretch 

 of 6,466 miles of railway from St. Petersburg to 

 Vladivostock, which spans the gulf between the 

 Eastern and Western worlds and is steadily peopling 

 and developing Siberia — a country which covers one- 

 thirteenth of the land surface of the globe. It is 

 impossible to over-estimate the importance of this 

 development from an international point of view. 

 The exploration pf the Highlands and Steppes of 

 Siberia has been successfully carried out by able 

 Russians and Siberians, leaving very little virgin 

 ground for explorers of other nationalities; but the 

 highest Siberian mountains, for want of mountaineers, 

 remain almost unexplored. 



The Siberian trade route to Mongolia has occasion- 

 ally been traversed by sportsmen who have passed 

 through the Altai Mountains in search of wild goats 

 (Ows Amman), but, so far as the mountains them- 

 selves are concerned, no previous English-speaking 

 explorer has been there, and there is tio English 

 literature on the subject, although the Altai Mountain 



