Geographic Notes 



231 



trom a Russian descent across the Tib- 

 etan plateau; but it is not the Tibetan 

 army, but its climatic and structural 

 peculiarities, that would prevent if. My 

 own experience has convinced me that 

 no army of men unaccustomed to living 

 in the high altitudes of the plateau 

 could be maintained in that region. 

 They could not live, and certainly they 

 could not march on foot. The diffi- 

 culties of transport are perfectly insu- 

 perable. 



"As the expedition of Colonel Young- 

 husband has demonstrated, it is much 

 easier to get into Tibet from India than 

 from Russia, and it has also shown 

 what weak resistance the soldiers of the 

 Grand Llama are able to offer any mod- 

 ern and well-disciplined force. Armed 

 with matchlocks, swords and knives, 

 and similar weapons of medieval war- 

 fare, they are as helpless as so many 

 children with toy guns. 



"Among the occasional travelers we 

 met on the route were a Chinese merchant 

 and his wife, both Mohammedans from 



Manchuria, and then engaged in mak- 

 ing the holy pilgrimage to Mecca. 



' ' They were mounted on the little 

 mountain ponies, and had been already 

 more than three months on their way. 

 The end of their pilgrimage was at least 

 five months ahead, but they were not 

 discouraged, and went confidently and 

 bravely on, the wife no less enthused 

 than her husband, though she perhaps 

 thought she was barred from the delights 

 of Paradise, an entrance into which the 

 man was to make certain by his pious 

 zeal. We furnished them directions for 

 their journey and all the help we could 

 give — and they passed out of our sight 

 across the snows. ' ' 



Mr Crosby brought back some an- 

 cient manuscripts from the sand-buried 

 ruins of Khotan. The manuscripts 

 have not yet been deciphered, but they 

 are pronounced exceedingly valuable. 

 He has located the source of the Kora- 

 kash River and obtained new information 

 regarding the mountain chains forming 

 the northwestern boundary of Tibet. 



GEOGRAPHIC NOTES 



IS THE NEW IMMIGRATION DANGER- 

 OUS TO THE COUNTRY 



THAT the Italians, Poles, and Huns 

 who are entering the country 

 by the hundred thousand are a source 

 of wealth and progress for the United 

 States instead of becoming a burden and 

 a danger, as so often argued, is the con- 

 clusion of Hon. O. P. Austin, expressed 

 in an article in the North American Re- 

 view for April. Since 1789, 22,000,000 

 immigrants have joined us, of whom ten 

 and a half million are now living. Of 

 this grand total 5,000,000 have come 

 from Germany, 4,000,000 from Ireland, 

 2,750,000 from England, 2,000,000 from 

 Canada, and 1,500,000 each from Italy, 



Austria-Hungary, Russia, Norway, and 

 Sweden. 



The latest statistics show that the 

 so-called "objectionable" class, instead 

 of leading in the number of criminals 

 and paupers, gives the United States a 

 much smaller proportion of disreputable 

 characters. A comparison based upon 

 the census of 1890, the latest available 

 figures on crime and dependency, shows 

 that per each million of the different for- 

 eign-born elements, there are in pris- 

 ons and benevolent institutions, etc. , of 

 Poles, 4,580; Austrians, 4,805; Rus- 

 sians, 5,202 ; Germans, 5,662 ; Hun- 

 garians, 6,792 ; English, 7,160 ; Scotch, 

 7,288 ; Italians, 9,877 ; French, 10,864 ; 

 Irish, 16,624. 



