The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER. TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 1912. THE HEART OF ASIA.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXII, Issue 41, 13 February 1912, Page 4

The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER. TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 1912. THE HEART OF ASIA.

Three Englisli explorers who started out an; April, 1910, to travel through the heart, of A.sia , reached Bombay safely, a, few, weeks ago.' They are Messrs Douglas" GarTuthdrs, ,T.’ ' ]‘|. Miller,; arid H. IV Price, and together they travelled, across Siberia to’Krasnoyarsk and southwards into 1 Mongolia, Dzungaria, Chinese Turkestan,, and the Himalayas. The adventurous journey covered a distance of /over five thousand miles, and was accomplished by horse' camel, cart, and on occasions ,by yaks, canoes, rafts, and tongas, not to ' mention oxen and asses. The motive of the undertaking was the advancement of scientific knowledge . and. the 1 travellers seem to have amassed a. satisfactory amount of valuable information. An account of their journey /states that they crossed a dozen great ranges, and touched no, fewer than ten isolated inland basins; In the forests progress was phinfully slow, being reduced to five ,miles a day on occasions. The bogs, in which the horses sank up to their bellies in mud, and the dense vegetation, often made the advance almost impossible. Some months wore past amongst >a most interesting and shy race of forest dwellers. Those strange people, ho practice Nature worship in its crudest form, are a remnant of an

neient folk driven back by the advance of the Mongol and the Tartar. They raise great herds of reindeer, and in habitat, mode of life and religious customs, are unlike anything else in Asia. The travellers’ journcyings took them into a region that is the cradle of the ancient Turkish race, ml there they found many antiquities and signs of ancient civilisation. Immense burial mounds surrounded by upright stones, reminded the explorers of Stonehenge. These were dotted about the Siberian side, and were found all the way aeoss northwest China, wherever the Mongol influence had penetrated. Stone images and posts, peculiar rounded pillars, representations of wierd animals seated on the rocks, were observed in districts now inhabited only by nomadic tribes of a low order. The travellers found the Siberians on the border, in constant fear of “the yellow peril” even though Chinese influence along

the frontier is very slight. In Mongolia the native carriers rarely asked for money in payment of service rendered, and were satisfied with brick tea. In the Altai mountains the interpreter, who learned Id’s Turkish in the Ottoman capital, bad no difficulty in talking with the Ivasaks, magniftcieut physical specimens, and remarkably clean. This was the “Ultima Thule” of Islam, being three thousand miles from Constantinople On the edge of the Croat Cohi Desert, the explorers found a little Mussulman kingdom, ruled by a

Wang or hereditary Khan, who entertained them in regal style in a colossal mud palace where be passes bis days amid Oriental luxury and splendour, the palace being surrounded by tbo most lovely gardens the travellers bad ever seen. For the adventurous spirit possessing tbo necessary time and money to do tilings; properly it appears there are still new fields in this old world for tbo white man to explore.

PICTURE 0 ; CHURCH

Although Germany is advance

many matters, one would hardly oxpoet such a startling “ionvard” movement as that made by the vicar of 11 1 0 now Evangelical (larrisnn Church iu Berlin, in Jiis determination to keep abreast oi the times. Jl may well be said that ho recently introduced something ol a novelty in church services, the celebration oi the first Advent Sunday being illustrated by cinematograph and magic-lantern pictures. Above the altar was stretched a large linen screen, and with the first notes of the organ the church was darkened. As the congrcgatia.sang the opening hymn in darkness, the star of Bethlehem appeared on tin screen above the altar. As the preacher, invisible among the shadows told the wondrous story of the birth of Christianity, his words wore illustrated by picture after picture depicting scones from the life of the infant Christ. The experiment was so groat a 'success that the vicar has decided to hold many further service* along the same lines, and wo may expect to sec his example followed.