FAMOUS EXPLORER

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 76, Issue 110, 12 May 1933, Page 6

FAMOUS EXPLORER

DISCOVERED LOST CITY WORK OF SVEN HEDIN. Working in an area almost the size of the United States, Dr. Nils Ambolt has been making delicate experiments relating to the gravity of the earth. Some of these observations, conducted at a remote spot hundreds of miles from the nearest westerner, entailed tests with a pendulum lasting 55 hours, during which it was possible to snatoh only a few minutes’ sleep at a time. Such was the extreme delicacy of these observations that the swing of the pendulum was measured to one-millionth of an inch. Dr. Ambolt is a member of the Sino-Swedish Expedition which has been conducting researches in the remote parts of Central Asia for the past six years, on a “front” of 2600 miles from Peking to Kashgar. Dr. Sven Hedin, the Swedish explorer, is famous for his travels in Tibet and his discoveries in connection with the “wandering lake” of Lobnor and the city of Lou-Lan, lost 1700 years ago. A few weeks agu he returned to Peking to resume his work as head of the Sino-Swedish Expedition. Dr. Hedin had spent nine months in Chicago supervising the erection of the Golden Pavilion, a replica of China ’s finest Lama temple, in the grounds of the World’s Fair, aud he was turning to the task of collating the results of the expedition, which will fill more than 30 large tomes when completed. Already many remarkable discoveries have been reported by the expedition, and Dr. Hedin looks to further discoveries as the remaining members come in from the field. Among the main discoveries so far are fossilised mastodons, petrified fish, insects and plants, prehistoric implements, and ancient scripts, as well as valuable data concerning the structure of t.he earth, astronomy, and the weather. Important discoveries relate to the lost city of Lou-Lan, now revisited by the “wandering lake” of Lob-nor after being left in a waterless waste for centuries. Six Years Ago. Other discoveries have been 20,000 Han scripts, 2000 years old, which are now being studied by Chinese scholars in Peking, in collaboration with Dr. B. Karlgren in Sweden, one of the greatest of living sinologues. Inscribed on wooden strips before the invention of paper, these scripts deal chiefly with campaigns against the raiding Huns. When the expedition first began its work six years ago, the staff numbered 27, including Swedes and Chinese, a film operator, and eight German aviation experts, the last-mentioned returning home when the provincial authorities forbade the use of aeroplanes There were 75 servants, and at the outset 300 camels.

While awaiting the four members of the expedition still in the field Dr. Hedin has been collating the enormous amount of material already obtained and working on his book dealing with Lou-Lan and the lake. Another task is drawing the illustrations for the book on Tibet he wrote during his stay in America. Dr. Hedin, who first began his travels forty-eight years ago, is still planning new expeditions. In connection with the “wandering lake” of Lob-nor, Dr. Hedin had predicted that the lake must return to its original site, basing this view on a careful study of the silting up of the almost level terrain. Later while he was in Chinese Turkestan he learned that the Tarim River had changed its course, and the lake, he assumed, must have resumed its old position near the rediscovered city of Lou-Lan. The Governor of the province, however, refused to give the expedition permission to proceed to the spot, so Hedin dispatched Dr. Nils Hoerner through the desert from Tunkwang in the east to the spot. For fourteen days of this journey there was no water or grass for the camels, water for the men being carried in the form of iceblocks. Halfway across the desert, the caravan found snow in a ravine, and this gave the camels sufficient for the rest of the way. Upon arrival it was found that Dr. Hedin’s prediction had been fulfilled—the truant lake had returned. Saved the Caravan.

Dr. Hoerner has been assisted in this work by a brilliant young Chinese explorer, Mr. Parker C. Chen, who on one occasion took charge of the expedition and saved the caravan when the grass was exhausted by taking the camels back to Tunkwang, a perilous journey in the height of the winter. The inhabitants of villages on the southern side of the “wandering lake” now left behind by the water, are seeking to deflect the Tarim River back to its recent course in order to influence the lake.

Dr. Birger Rohlin, who was known for his work in connection with the fossil Peking man before he joined Dr. Hedin, has found petrified fish, plants, and insects 100,000,000 years old, preserved so beautifully that every little detail is to be seen to-day, even the scales of the fish and the delicate fibres in the wings of the dragou-flies. Dr. Bohlin has also found a new species of dinosaur and many other animals hitherto unknown to science. Numerous dinosaurs and one dinosaur egg, the only one found, have been discovered by Dr. P. L. Yuan, a Chinese geologist, earlier travels. Crossing the Tarim Dr. Hedin found the lost city in Basin, suddenly in the heart of tDie desert he found himself among the ruins of houses, towers, and crumbling walls. He realised that he had discovered the ancient city of Lou-Lan, a fortified outpost built by the great Han emperors on the shores of the “wandering lake” to protest the old silk route between China and Rome from raiding Huns more than 2000 years ago.