Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1902-10-31
THE ROOF OF THE WORLD.
Sven Hedin's Exploration of Central
Asia and It's Results.

From the London Daily News.
To the current number of 'sThe Geograph-
ical Journal DR.. Sven Hedin contributes
concise summary of his remarkable explo-
ra tons in eastern Turkestan and Tibet dur
ing the last three years. His former journey
in Central Asia-from 1893 to 1S91-was
thought, as he modestly observes, to mark
an advance in the geographical knowledge
of these regions, but he considers the re-
suits of this one to be much more valuable.
In 1t he has traversed a great extent of
hitherto untrodden ground, and has been
able, as he justly claims, Ito lift the veil
which for thousand years has hidden vast
stretches of the mountains and desert re-
gions of the heart of Asia They are with
out a rival on the surface of the globe.
The mountain chains Of Central Asia ra-
date from the Fantastic roof of the
world-like giant roots from an old tree
stump. Two of these, the vast compound
mass of the HimalayaS and karakoramS
and the chain of the Kuen-lun, inclose the
greatest and loftiest mountain plateau in the
world, not a little Of which overtops Mont
Blanc, and much is as high above the sea
level as the summit of the Wetterhorn-a
region of scorching heat in the summer sun
and bitter cold in the winter frost. Be
tween the kuen-lun and the Thian-shan is
another plateau, more level and lower, sink
ing eastward down to the great rainless
Cobb desert. On his former journey DR..
Sven Hedin's explorations carried him over
Turkestan from the foot of the Thian-shan
to the Lob Nor. This time he has not only
worked out many points previously incom-
plete but has examined the desert still fur
Their east, and explored large area OF
eastern Tibet from north to south. He was
turned back, though without injury, in TWO
attempts to penetrate as far as Lhassa,
and finally made his way westward to Leh.
Travelling in such regions is very laborious
and entails much hardship, yet DR.. Sven He
tod INV 70 ticrtrn
The amount Of work he has accomplished is
prodigious. His photographed material,
he says, consists of not less than LAO
sheets, which, ii arranged end to end in a
row, would measure over 1000 feet; ia as
Economical determinations have been Sc
cured to check this; he has kept a complete
meteorological journal, making records
thrice day; he has taken over 1000 photo
graphs, made archaeological, geological and
botanical collections; besides bringing about
seven hundred rock specimens to illustrate
the geology of Tibet, of which at present
very little Is known. Throughout, he says,
he endeavored to avoid travelling over routes
already traversed by other explorers. But
the earlier part of his journey was in re-
gion which he had already visited, north
ern Turkestan, its object, which was COM
pletely successful, being to trace accurately
the couse of the River Tarim
Both that and the less important Cher
chen-Daria are frequently changing their
course, abandoning one channel to excavate
another. The former river SHOWS constant
tendency to shift bed toward the south, and
on that side throws off numerous arms Of
secondary channels, into which occasionally
it diverts its main stream. These vagrant
tendencies are rendered easy by the nature
of the region traversed-an arid lowland,
with the shifting sand dunes for hills. In
one place, on the right bank of the Tarim,
a chain of long lakes bordered by sterile
sands has been formed, which are continued
between dunes sometimes more than hum
dred yards high, by a series of depreSsions
each covered by clay and absolutely barren.
This tendency to. shift its bed becomes more
pronounced as the river approaches the re-
gion where it herlshes among the desert
sands, and the Tarim, instead of empty
ing itself into the ancient lake of Lob Nor,
goes on past it and forms the lake of
Kara-Koshun, further to the SOUTH
The position of the former has been
matter of dispute, which DR.. Sven Hedn has
set at rest The ancient lake has now COM
pletely dried up, but on its northern shore
he found ruins of towns, settlements and
temples, as we'll as manuscripts and tablets
of tamarisk wood in Chinese characters
the present era, together with indubitable
traces of an ancient caravan road. His
former journey rewarded by similar
archaeological discoveries further west in
Turkestan, SO that evidently the region was
much more fourishing some fifteen centu-
ries ago. Partly this has been the work of
man, but perhaps it is still more due to a
change in climate. A very large portion OF
Central Asia, not only in the region east of
the Thian-shan, but even in that to the
west of this chain, seems to be gradually
drying up but what may be the cause of the
desiccation no one can venture to declare
positively.