FOOTPRINT PUZZLE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23378, 21 June 1939, Page 15

FOOTPRINT PUZZLE

HIMALAYAN TRACKS "ABOMINABLE SNOWMEN" PERSISTENT LEGEND The reported discovery of mysterious footprints in the Jhinhines is a reminder of nn amusing controversy which was waged for many weeks in the London Times in 19137 over the socalled "abominable snowmen" of the Himalayas and Tibet. While it lasted, the discussion was quite as vigorous as that provoked by the Loch Ness Monster. Ihe Tibetans and neighbouring peoples have a persistent belief that their high mountains are inhabited by lerocious semi-human creatures, some of great size, with shaggy hair and feet turned backward. The larger kind is said to devour yaks ami both are capable of killing and eating men who fall into their clutches. Naturally such things can easily bo identified by their tracks in the snow. Explorer's Report Tho subject was raised by an explorer, Mr. Honald Kaulback, in a series of articles on a journey he had made from Upper Burma in 1935 into Eastern Tibet and back again. He said that at a height of 16,000 ft. he came upon five sets of tracks leading down the side of a valley through the snow "at an almost impossible angle." They wore not completely clear, but looked exactly as if made by bare-footed men. Mr. Kaulback discounted the idea that they were the tracks of bears, as he knew of none in the region. Two of the coolies who accompanied him thought that the marks were those of snow-leopards, and the other two attributed them to "mountain men." One said he had seen such a creature and described it as like a man, whiteskinned, with long hair on the head, shoulders and arms. Welcome to Europe! Mr. Kaulback immediately became involved in a discussion with readers of the Times, one of whom, Wing-Com-ma nder E. Is. Beauman, stated that in 1931, at a height of 14,000 ft. near the sources of the Ganges, he had seen similar tracks. Other correspondents attributed them to certain species of large monkeys and to "an unknoAvn relative of the giant panda." Mr. Heurv Newman, a journalist, intervened to claim credit for coining the name "abominable snowmen" after talking with porters of the first Everest expedition at Darjeeling. He stated that it was a translation of a Tibetan expression that they used. The Times then felt bound to express its own views in a facetious subleader, in which it said that after so many travellers' tales it would not be long before someone brought back a snowman in the flesh. "However abominable, he will be welcome, it remarked. "We are getting a bit tired of each other's company in Europe; we should be glad of a change." A Hardy Ascetic This did not check the flow of opinions. A captain in the Royal Engineers held out for a human origin. He said that on a 17,000 ft. pass in Ladakh in 1930 he met a Hindu mendicant, clad in a loin-cloth, who stated in perfect English that he was an M.A. of an English university and a member of the Middle Temple, but had retired from the world and was on a pilgrimage for the good of his soul. The captain suggested that "barefoot prints of hardy ascetics" might account for a good deal. The "abominable snowmen" were allowed to rest for the next couple of months, until Mr. F. S. Smytlie, leader of two Everest Expeditions, raised the subject again with an article in which lie minutely described foot-long tracks he had seen ?n the Garhwal Himalayas the previous year at a height of IG,sooft. He illustrated his description with a whole series of photographs, and held that "a complete and logical explanation" was that the marks had been made by a certain species of bear, crossing from one valley to another. "Perambulating Soup-plate" Thereupon a reader who signed himself with a pseudonym produced a photograph of tracks which he said he had followed for a mile in the basin of a high Himalayan glacier. They were circular, 9in. in diameter and 18in. apart, exactly in line behind ono £>nother. Mr. Smythe rejoined that he had expected unpopularity as a "debunker." "If my suspicions are well-founded," he added, "I must retract all my conclusions, for if the snowman can emulate a perambulating soup-plate, then hear tracks must be small beer to him." The last word was an echo from n lonely Briton encamped at Gyantse. on the road to lhasa. He had not seen any footprints, but he had heard "a ghastly yell" at night from a Himalayan pine-forest, and his three terrified native servants had not been behindhand with an explanation.