EXPLORATIONS IN ASIA

Evening Star, Issue 19328, 14 August 1926, Page 9

EXPLORATIONS IN ASIA

FURTHER DISCOVERIES IH MONGOLIA Tho Russian explorer of Mongolia, Colonel Kozloff, has sent home an account of his latest explorations, mostly in tho Khangai Mountains, among the hare rocks of which his party found the tombs of thirty generations of SanNnin Khans. For some hundreds of miles, the explorer states, tins mountain range shows unquestionable traces of the Ice Age. The slopes present sharp contrasts, tho southern sides being steep, rocky, and comparatively poor in vegetation and animal life, while tho northern slope is rich and even luxuriant. The .tombs were found near the summit of the ridge. Stone slabs cover the graves, which are embellished with wooden ornamentation and surrounded by a wooden fence, on the inside of which hang painted representations of Buddha and Buddhist reformers. Funeral rites, as we understand them, are quite unknown in Mongolia, according to Colonel Kozloff, who finds particular interest in these tombs at a height of nearly 9,000 ft above sea level, close to the grey, craggy mountain peaks. Tho explorer writes:— “The ancient inhabitants of what is now Mongolia in the remotest ages of the past worshipped the Khangai Mountains and thoir offspring, the rivers Orkhon and Ongiin-Gol, singing praises to their wealth, spaciousness, and luxuriance. Mongols still venerate and extol the_ dominating peaks of Khangai-Sovrak-Khairkhan and IrgitKhairkhan for their ‘ divine ’_ beauty, and chiefly because these massive rocks gave birth to the river Orkhon, grand and great, with its blue-water rapids hurrying down through deep canyons to nourish tho vast steppe pastures below.” PICTURESQUE WATERFALL. In oue of these canyons the explorer discovered a very picturesque waterfall, to which the name of “The Kozloff Waterfall ” was given. The' cataract falls from a ledge 70ft high into a gorge composed of hard, dark, gneissic rock, the upper surfaces of which are in places of a sponge-like appearance. Until recently this waterfall was the object of particular worship by the natives, who propitiated it by sacrifices of silver, which they cast into the swollen, foaming tide, with prayers and prostrations. The upper reaches of tho river Orkhon abound in vast streams of dark “ bubbly ” lava, running close to the river and sometimes swelling out into great lake-liko expanses. These streams are often “ intertwined ” into such complicated mazes that even the natives sometimes get lost in the labyrinth, to say nothing of the casual traveller, who has no hope whatever of finding Ins way. In ancient days these_ volcanic formations served the inhabitants as an inexhaustible store of material for lofty cairns and other monuments, which are to bo found not only along the course of the principal rivers, but also along the small tributaries. Hero and there ancient monuments with wellpreserved embellishments are to be discovered; but the native Mongols are somewhat shy about helping travellers to find them. With the help of presents, ’however, the tactful stranger can generally manage to obtain a guide to them. ' MUCH YET TO BE FOUND.

Along tho rivers Orkhon and OngiinGol, and also in the Gobi Desert itself, relics of past ages in tho form of stone and bronze ornaments are continually' being found. The colonel mentions particularly a curious wooden seal which ho found near tho river Orkhon, and a number of bronze representations of fabulous boasts found in tho desert. He is assured that there remains much to be found, ami that there are great territories as yet quits unexplored in the upper readies of tho Orkhon, the “cradle of peoples” who left their marks on tho country in the far distant past.

In all his reports Colonel Kozloff gives importance to the 'evidence he has found of ancient Greek influences in Mongolia. A groat slab of grey granite which lie recently found over a tomb near the river Ongiin-Gol is covered with artistic ornamentation in the Byzantine stylo. Near the source of this river he camo upon extensive ruins, called by the native Mongols OlunSumeh, or “Many Temples.” Tombs extend from this place in an unbroken chain for ten to fifteen miles eastward along the valley of tho river OngiinGol. On tho eastern slope of a “praying mound ” stands the stone figure of a woman, over which, as a sort of shelter, has been built a beautiful little Buddhist chapel. “WHITE” AND “BLACK” DAMES. Tlte, stone figure is called TsiganU. Altai, or “White Dame,” and _is wo:shipped as a beneficent deity. Not far distant in the bare steppe stands another such figure known ns KharaUshkhai, or “ Black Dame,” which is hold, in great dread. Tho people thereabouts believe _ that, if anyone dared to approach this figure, a fierce storm would immediately be lot loose to ravage tho district. Travelling southward with thirty pack camels to join his colleagues at KharaKlioto, which he fondly refers to as “my dead city,” : Colonel Kozloff met an old friend,' a prominent Mongolian resident, named Chimyt-Dorche, who vouchsafed information which induced the' colonel to', alter his immediate plans _ and undertake some excavations uist inside the Gobi Desert. Hero, “ where .mo European had ever set foot before,” lie discovered fossil remains of 'prehistoric vertebrates —“a. hornless rhinoceros, a giraffe, a gigantic hoar, some uncertain form of horned animal, as well as big and little rodents,” and many fragments. These relics are all in an excellent state of preservation. Colonel Kozloff despatched his report in May, when these palaeontological excavations were still in progress. Kis intention was then to leave the work in the hands of his colleagues, and see how work was preceding at KharaKhoto under his assistant Glagoleff. He hoped to reach the “Dead City ” before the end of June.