THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. TUESDAY, DECEMBER 1, 1908. SVEN HEDIN'S LATEST JOURNEY.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 3058, 1 December 1908, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. TUESDAY, DECEMBER 1, 1908. SVEN HEDIN'S LATEST JOURNEY.

Dr Sven Hedin, the great Swedish traveller, has once more returned from his journeys in Tibet, and has published some most interesting details concerning them. For the past two years Dr Hedin has been once , more engaged, with little intermission, in the task of penetrating into the unknown recesses oi Tibet. The first year's exploration, of which the results were made known last year, resulted in many valuable additions to our knowledge of Central Asian geography, and, in particular, to the discovery of the true sources of the Brahmaputra and Indus. In December last, as he now states, Dr Hedin started from Leh, in Kashmir, on a second journey, which fcr romantic interest, for the magnitude of the hardships overcome, as well as for the extent of its addition to geographical knowledge, must be awarded a brilliant place in the annals of adventurous exploration. Since, in 1890, Dr Hedin first applied

himself to the solution of the geographical problems of Central Asia by his journey through Khorassan and Turkestan, he has secured a world-wide reputation as one of the most adventurous and successful of explorers. None of his former travels, however, surpass in the variety of their perils the story of the journey which has just reached its last stage at Simla, after the prolonged absence of news had begun to cause keen anxiety for Dr Hedin's safety. The traveller in the wilds of Central Asia, and especially in Tibet, has, perhaps, to reckon with a mure daunting combination of difficulties interposed by men and by Nature than is now to be found in any other quarter of the globe, with the possible exception of the interior or' Arabia. The traditional excljsiveness of that Tibetan character now shows some signs of relaxation, in virtue of that contact with the outer world which even the Lamas, in their remote and wintry highlands, have not wholly been able to prevent. It is gratifying for Englishmen to recall that Dr Hedin has borne SDecial testimony to the far mire cordial treatment which he experienced on his journey in 1907 than during its predecessors, and that he attributes this welcome change ot attitude to the excellent understanding established by Sir Frank Younghusband at Lhasa four years ago. But the difficulties of this latest expedition consisted no les3 in eluding the vigilance and suspicion of the inhabitants than in sustaining hsalth or bare life in the members of the expedition, in face of the terrible ordeals of storm, cold, and hunger which were experienced throughout n great part of the journey. Dr Hedin must surely sometimes reflect that on his own most characteristic excursions no prospects please, while both nature and man are vile. The ordinary European, in whom the primal Aryan passion for exploration has long been atrophied by civilisation, may well feel the ke nest admiration for such feats of courage, ingenuity, and endurance as have been once more displayed since December last, in a new quarter of his own familiar fieli, by the famous Swedish explorer.