The Birmingham age-herald., 1902-11-03
THE ROOF OF THE WORLD.
Sven Hedln's Explorations of Central
 Asia and Its Results.

From the London Daily News.
 To the current number of the Geo. graphical Journal pr. Oven Hedin con- tributes a concise summary of his re- markable explorations in Eastern Turke- stan and Tibet during the last three years. His former journey in Central Asia-from 1893 to 1s97-was thought, as he modestls observes, to mark an ad- vance in the geographical knowledge of these regions, but he considers the results of this one to be much more valuable. In it has traversed great extent of hith- erto untrodden ground, and has been able, as he justly claims, ''to lift the veil which for a thousand years has hidden vast stretches of the mountainous and desert regions of the heart of Asia" They are without a rival on the surface of the globe.
 The mountain chains of Central Asia radiate from the Pamirs-the 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 pla- teau in the world. not little of which 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. Between the Kuen- lun and the Thlan1shan Is another pla- teau, more level and lower, sinking east yard down to the great rainless Gobi desert. On his former journey Dr. Sven Turkestan from the foot of the Thian- shan to the Lob Nor. This time he has not only worked out many points pre- viously incomplete, but has examined the desert area of Eastern Tibet from north to south. He was turned back. though without injury, In two attempts to pene- trate as far as Lhassa, and finally made his way eastward to Leh.
 Traveiing in such regions is very la borious and entails much hardship, yet Dr. Sven Hedin's industry seems unaf- fected by fatigue. The amount of work he has accomplished is prodigious. His chartographical material, he says, con- sists of not less than 114O sheets, which, if arranged end to end in a row, would measure over 1000 feet; IA astronomical determinations have been secured to check this; he has kept complete me- teorlogical journel, making records thrice a day; he has taken over 20OO photo graphs, made archaeological, geological and botanical collections; besides bring ing 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 trav- ersed by other explorers. But the earlier part of his journey was in a region which he had already visited, Northern Turke- | stan, its object. which was completely | successful, being to trace accurately the course of the River Tarim.
 Both that and the less important | Cherchen-Daria are frequently changing | their course, abandoning one channel to excavate another. The former river | shows a constant tendency to shift bed toward the south, and on that side throws l off numerous arms or secondary chan
 nels. into which occasionally it diverts | its main stream. These vagrant tend | encies are rendered easy by the nature of the region traversed-an arid lowland