The daily morning journal and courier., 1903-12-05

l Some Account of the Country Which England is Preparing to Invade Near "Ihe Roof of the worId"- Where the Wild Beasts are Tanner Than the Men.
 Now that English military forces are cooperating with English explorers in a determined movement to invade an- cient Tibet, the veil that has hidden the mysteries, wonders and obscurity of the various tribes of TiDetans and their practically unsurveyed country is likely to be torn away. For ages this section of Asia has baff1ed the curiosity and ef- forts of the adventurous. Many explo- rations have had the penetration of it's central territory for their object, but less is known about Tibet than the po- lar regions. Sufficient is known, how ever, to warrant the belief that visit of white men to the country west of Lhasa will yield startling information. England has authorized the statement that the present invasion of Tibet, es- pecially of the "holy" city of Lhassa, is a commercial one. The trade of India with Tibet is said to be constantly in- terferred with through the advice of the Dalai Lama, who rules the people. In
 diplomatic circles the real object of the i expedition is supposed to be the ulti- mate acquisition by England of the rich 1 undeveloped mineral treasures of west ern Tibet, and the blocking of Russian ambitions Many Russians are be- lieved to be with the Tibetans, direct
 ing their warlike attitude against Eng land and even distributing modern arms which have been manufactured in Russia.
 China would as soon give up Tibet as
 she would abandon her rights in the de- pendencies of Manchuria and Mongolia.
 Yet Tibet is the least satisfactory of these dependencies, so far as the strength of the bond of attachment is
 concerned. Tfbetans would help China
 in time of war, but China cannot con- trol Tibetans in time of peace. | WHAT SOME EXPLORERS SAW.
 Just how many English speaking
 travellers have attempted to journey
 through Tibet is question that has never been solved, but the number is
 comparatively small On one occasion, when Dr. Sven Hedin made an expedi- ton to map northern Tibet, and espec- fally the mountains to the south of Kumkull, one of the Tibetans gave him 9 lady's garter that bore the imprint of : a Strand jeweler on it's silver buckle. 1 The Tibetan was unable to tell anything about how he came into possession of the feminine finery, but as he had nev- 1 CT been outside of Tibet, and no white woman was ever inside the dark terri tory, the inference is that-well, Dr. Sven Hedin never cared to discuss the delicate matter.
 w. Woodvil1e Rockhill, who has made several trips in Tibet, including an un- successful attempt to pass from China through Tibet into India, once saw number of bottles that had contained Munich beer in chieftain's tent to the north of Lhasa. The original labels were on the bottles, which, it seems i needless to say, were empty. The chief tain shook his head in a I-decline-to- answer sort of way when asked to ex- plain the presence of the Teutonic pro- duct He smacked his lips in a satisfied way as he said that he did not wish to explain. but it was clear that the re-
 nembranee of what the bottles had con- tained was very sweet to him. Some German wayfarer had clearly lost his beer, if not his life. The liquid from Munich could not have belonged to Adolf Schlagintweit, for he was mur- dered by Walle Khan, the insurgent chieftain at Kashgar Turkestan, hun dreds of miles away, many years before
 WILD ANIMALS. WILDER MEN. About the only breathing thing in Ti- bet that may be absolutely depended upon is the wild animal that wanders through the mountainous country. Wild sheep bigger than ponies, husky bears, cattle wilder than lions, with great bushy tails like horses and long hair on their Hanks; giant antelopes, gazelles and wild horses, the flesh of which is a staple article of diet among the Tibe- tans: wolves that fear only the Tibe- IctIISy anu pulICllCS OI ydhS, may frequently be seen wandering up the narrow Winging gorges that have tremendous vertical cliffs on either hand. The wild animals of the country are tanner than the majority of the men that capture them with their harschair lassos.
 It is only the people of Llassa and Its surroundings, who call themselves civil lized, who bar the way to the European and American explorer. Those who are not civilized and who live in northern Tibet have always been unusually kind and faithful to passing tranggers. Ti- bet is really near the roof of the world" It is the highest plateau in Asia, forming a broad, enormous table land, over fifteen thousand feet above sea level, the mountain peaks being over twenty-five thousand feet in height. The Hanks of the chain of mountains fall sheer and steep to the plateau beyond. These mountain chains tower aloft like gigantic walls, printing the sharp outlines of their snowy peaks and glaciers upon the deep blue of the sky.
 TERRORS OF THE DESERT.
 IL