Book Reviezvs. 



135 



BOOK REVIEWS. 



Edited by William Frederic Bade. 



"Western Tibet '^^^ attention of mountaineers with money 

 AND THE British leisure is increasingly turning to Tibet. 



Borderland'' Until recently no Europeans except a few 

 Moravian missionaries had entered this for- 

 bidden country. Even these had not penetrated far beyond the 

 border. But during the last decade Great Britain has been more 

 aggressive in the assertion of her suzerain rights along the west- 

 ern frontier of Tibet, even going to the length of sending a 

 military embassy to the capital. It is not surprising, therefore, 

 that the best recent literature on Tibet should have been pro- 

 duced by Englishmen with an exploring turn of mind. Notable 

 from every point of view is a book* that has just come to the 

 reviewer's table from the press of Edward Arnold (London), 

 publisher to the India office. Its title. Western Tibet and the 

 British Borderland, sufficiently describes the scope of the work. 

 As Deputy Commissioner of Almora, the author, Charles A. 

 Sherring, evidently made good every facility for exploration. 

 One hundred and seventy-five photographs of uncommon excel- 

 lence illustrate the text. One chapter, written by T. G. Long- 

 staff, a member of the Alpine Club, describes an attempt to climb 

 Gurla Mandhata (altitude 25,350 ft.). This account will be of 

 particular interest to members of the Sierra Club, Mr. Longstaff 

 was accompanied by two Alpine guides from Courmayeur. 

 Among the adventures of the trio was a fearful ride on a snow 

 avalanche which carried them down a thousand feet and lodged 

 them on a somewhat gentler slope. The following night they 

 spent in a hole in the snow at an altitude of more than 23,000 

 feet. The writer considers their escape miraculous, and moralizes 

 as follows : "I think we were to blame in having ventured to 

 descend any steep Himalayan snow-slope after the sun had been 

 on it all day, especially as most slopes in these mountains are 

 really steeper than they look. In the Alps the reverse is usualfy 

 the case, while the snows of the Caucasus take an intermediate 

 position." Mr. Sherring's style is not highly literary, but he 

 narrates so well that the reader's interest never flags for a 



* Western Tibet and the British Borderland. By Charles A. Sherring, 

 M. A., F. R. G. S. London: Edward Arnold, Publisher to the India Office. 

 Pp. 367. 



