PREFACE 
T his work does not claim to be anything more 
than a plain account of my journeys through Asia 
during the years 1893 to 1897. It has been written for 
the general public, and presents nothing more than a 
description of my travels and the more memorable of 
my experiences — not by any means the whole of my 
experiences. To have recorded everything that 1 set 
down in my note-books would have swelled out the book 
to twice its existing length. Nevertheless those portions 
of my journey which I have merely touched upon, or 
have passed over altogether in silence, will not, I trust, 
be altogether lost. If this book is received with the 
indulgence which I venture to hope for it, I propose to 
issue a supplementary volume, to contain a multitude of 
matters of varied interest and of not less importance 
than those contained in these pages. 
For these reasons the great bulk of the scientific 
observations I made find no place in the present volumes. 
All the same I believe the geographer will be able to 
discover in them something or other that will be of in- 
terest to him. 
In this place I will content myself with a bare mention 
of the scientific labours, upon which the chief part of my 
time, energy, and attention were constantly expended — 
the drawing of geological sections of the meridional 
border ranges on the east side of the Pamirs and of the 
mountain-chains of the Kwen-lun system ; the collecting 
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