THE FORBIDDEN LAND.

Marlborough Express, Volume XLIV, Issue 56, 11 March 1910, Page 6

THE FORBIDDEN LAND.

SVEN HEDIN'S ADVENTURES IN TIBET.

Three years ago maps of Tibet showed a large blank space north of the Brahmaputra, across which trailed the letters of the word "unexplored." Those maps are now out of date, thanks to the hazardous and unremitting work of exploration undertaken by Sir Sven Hedin during 1907 and 190 S. It was the object of his life to cross that blank spec, an object that we must all congratulate him upon having accomplished with such signal success. On the Geographical Journal's map he crossed just betAveen the letters "p" and "1," so he tells us, and followed up his first traverse of the immense mountain system of midTibet by recrossing it in different directions some eight times,_ and affording himself the opportunity of making observations of incalculable importance to science, the bulk of which are in process of checking the tabulation preparatory to publication. It is thus not yet possible to realise to the full Dr Hedin's services to the; scientific world, but in the book thatj he has already published, "Trans-< Himalaya" (Macmillan, two volumes 80s net), we have a graphic and absorbingly interesting narrative of adventure that vies successfully with anything in fiction. THE TRANS-HIMALAYA. Dr Hedin found that almost the whole tract of country, hitherto unexplored, through which he passed in many directions, consisted of an elaborate system of high mountain ranges, to which he has decided to give the name of Trans-Himalaya, j i Some geographers are objecting to i the title, but Dr Hedin has no fears as to its ultimate general acceptance —witness the characteristic rhapsody: "Go then out into the world, thou ringing and sonorous name for one of the world's mightiest mountain systems, and find thy way into geographical text-books, and remind children in the schools of the snow-crowned summist on the roof of the world, among which the monsoon storms have sung their deafening chorus since the beginning. As long as I live my proudest memories, like royal eagles, will soar round the cold, desolate crags of the Trans-Himalaya." It i was unfortunate for Dr Hedin that1 at the time of his visit the new Liberal Government had reclosed the path to Tibet from India after Colo- j nel Younghusband's expedition to I Lhasa. Lord Curzon had promised I useful, almost indispensable, co-opera- j tion on the part of the Indian Government, and Lord Morley' subse-! quent refusal to allow a start to be made from Simla came as a great ' shock to Dr Hedin. But he was not •cast down altogether. "Hope is the last thing one resigns, and so I still hoped that all would! turn out well in the end. Failure! spurred my ambition and: stretched; my powers to the uttermost tension.! Try to hinder me if you can, I j thought; I will show you that lam more at home in Asia than you. Try to close this immense Tibet, try to! bar all the valleys which lead from the frontier to the high plateaus, and you will find that it is quite impossible. I felt quite relieved when the last peremptory and somewhat curt refusal came and put an end to all further negotiations. I had a feeling as though i was suddenly left in solitude and the future depended on myself alone. My life and my honour for the next two years were at stake; of course, I never thought of giving in. I had commenced the fifth journey with a heavy heart, not with trumpets and flourishes as on the j former expeditions. But now it was | all at once become my pet child. Though I should perish, this journey ; should be the grandest event of mv ! life."

He skirted the forbidden land till he could enter by way of Kashmir and Eastern Turkestan, began to form his caravan at Shrinagar, and had brought it to full strength at Leh, where he bade a' definite farewell to civilisation. He turned sharply to the eastwards, crossing the Western Tibetan frontier with a band of brave and hardy fellows, whose portraits we are given in the graphic words of their master. There is Muhamed Isa, the caravan-leader, old servant of Gary, Dalgleish, de Rhins, Younghusband, Rawling, Ryder, and others, a hero of Asiatic travel, whose untimely death cast a prolonged gloom over the whole expedition, and who was buried in the shroud that Guffari, a lively youth of 62, carried with him during the whole expedition in the event of a fatal accident to himself; there is Rehim Ali, too, who is rendered incapable of move- j ment by frights, falls down flat before a charging yak, and has in a storm to be thrown out of the boat on Lake Xigten before he will beach her.v There is also Shukkuv Ali, the jester of the party, and the exemplary Gurkha whose nose had be,en bitten off in a playful tussel with a fellow-country-man. These men were of several religions, sometimes changing from one to another. PERILS BY WATER. From a score of thrilling descriptions I quote that which shows the ' reader how Dr Hedin and Rehim Ali < felt immediately after a narrow escape from death by drowning:— "The water on the bottom of the boat turned to ice; my fur coat was as hard as a board and was absolutely useless. Hands and feet were stiff, and had lost all feeling: we must get up again or we should be quite frozen. ■

There was only one thing to do. In the shelter of the boat 1 took off my Kashmir boots and my stockings, and Rehim Ali shampooed my feet, but I felt no life in them until he had opened his chankan and warmed them for a long time against his naked body. There was no sign of life anywhere about. Amid the roaring of the surf we had to shout to make ourselves heard. How were we to pass the night with 29 degrees of frost, and wet clothes already stiffened into cuirasse of ice? Could we keep alive till the sun rose? Rehim Ali disappears into the darkness to search for fuel, but he comes back empty-handed. To my joy I discover that my cigarette-case and matches are still available; I had stood in the water only up to my breast, even when the last breaker had done its best to wet me through. So I light a cigarette and give one to Rehim Ali to cheer him up. 'Is there nothing here, then, that we can burn? Yes, wait, we have the,wooden roller of the sounding-line and the frame in which it is fixed Fetch them at once.' We ruthlessly break up the masterpiece of Muhamed Isas skill in carpentry, and hack in pieces the frame with our knives; we lay aside the wet shavings, and use the dry inner sticks as firewood, -i-iiey make a very tiny heap. Only a couple are sacrificed at once, and I get them to burn with some blank leaves from my notebook. Our fire is small and insignificant, but it warms us famously, and. our hands thaw again. We sit close over the fire, and keep it up with the greatest economy, putting on one splinter at a time. I take off my clothes to wring them as dry as I can; Rehim Ali dries my ulster, on which I depend for the night; the fur coat is left to.its fate. How long is it to the dawn? Ah, several hours yet._ The roller and the handel are still in reserve, but this small stock of wood cannot last long, and I look forward with trepidation to the moment when the cold will compel us to sacrifice the mast and the benches. The time passes slowly; we say little to one another, we long for the sun." THE TASHI LAMA. After weeks of hardship in the uninhabited wilds of Chang-Tang, Dr Hedin got at last into touch with the Tibetans themselves: but quickly met with opposition. Hla'je Tsering, the Governor of the province and an old opponent, tried to turn hi,m back, but relented on observing the explorer's firm attitude. So Dr Hedin won through to the Holy City of Shigatse, with its great monastery of TashiLunpo, where he was the only European to witness the great religious festival of the New Year, here fully described. He met, too, the Tashi Lama, or religious head of the church, in contradistinction to the Dalai Lama, or temporal ruler, now discredited for his cowardice during the British march on Lhasa. Here is a portrait of this Asiatic Pope, who seems to have impressed Dr Hedin most favourably:— "Wonderful, never to be forgotten Tashi Lama! Never has any man made so deep and ineffaceable impression on me. Not as a divinity in human form, but as a man, who in goodness of heart, innocence, and purity approaches as near as possible to perfection; it displayed unbounded kindness, humility, and philanthropy; and I have never seen such a smile, a mouth so delicately formed, so noble a countenance. His smile never left him; he smiled like a sleeper dreaming of something beautiful and desirable, and whenever our eys met his smile grew broader, and he nodded kindly and amiably as1 much as to say: 'Trust in my friendship implicity, for my intentions are good towards all men.' " A STRANGE SALUTATION. For a fuller record of the results acheived by Dr Hedin and his followers I must refer my readers to the book itself. The vivacity of its distinguished author's writing is marked, and his powers of rescription are only second to. those of his observation. Here is a final impressionist sketch:—

"Forty Tibetans stood at the camp fire. When I rode up they all thrust out their tongues as far as they would go and their bright red colour formed a strong contrast to the dirty faces. Those, r who wore caps took them off with the left hand and scratched their heads with the right—another form of salutation. When we spoke with them they repeatedly shot out their tongues but only from politeness and frendliness; they could not do enough to show their goodwill." Tibet is a strange land—a threatening, gloomy land, but a land, as we see here, where cheerfulness and humour are not unknown. This great explorer's record of the 26 months he spent in it cannot be too highly praised. It contains information of the first importance, it is splendidly illustrated, and, above all, it is essentially readable.