Los Angeles herald., 1907-05-12
TO PARIS
IS AUTO ROUTE
NOVEL SPEED AND ENDURANCE
TEST ARRANGED
Distance 5000 MiIes-Contestants Will
Need Guides in China-Must Cross
a Desert-Other Conditions
Make Trip Arduous
snecial Cable to The Herald.

| Special Gable to The Herald.
PARIS, May 11.-Active preparations
are being made for the great Peking to
Paris automobile drive, which is being
organized by a Partisan paper, the LIE
Matin and for which more than score
of entries have already been made. The
start will be made the final week in
June.
At first it had been proposed to select
route through Central Asia but that
idea has now been abandoned, and the
route chosen will be through Mongolia,
Siberia and European Russia. Rus
sian committee has taken the matter In
hand and held three meetings, at which
1t discussed the conditions and selected
the main points of the route.
This will certainly be the longest au-
tomobile drive ever undertaken. The
distance is over $500 miles, and over
roads which will severely test the relia'
bility of the motors and cars.
From Peking the line lies through
Kalgan, Urga, Irkutsk on Lake Baikal,
Kansk, Tomsk, Omsk, Petropavlosk,
Kurgan, ziatoub, Kazan, Nijni-Novgo-
rod, Moscow, Warsaw and thence
through Germany and Belgium to
Paris.
Need Guides in China
From the Chinese capital to Kalgan
the route is through a thickly populated
district over Chinese roads. and three
mountain passes, for a distance of 120
miles.
From Kalgan to Urga there is So
called imperial road, used by caravans,
for a distance of about 300 miles. This
imperial road is only road in name,
and consists of a sort of general track
a mile or two wide, over which the car
ayans pass. There are only few hills
here and there, and villages are found
about every fifteen or twenty miles
The automobilists will have to engage
native guides from one village to an
other. and this is about the worst part
of the trip.
On arriving at Irkutsk, on Lake Bal
kal. the motorists will practically return
to civilization They can then follow
the general direction of the Trans-Sibe-
rian railway and will find provisions
and gasoline in abundance in each vii
lage. There only remains the desert OF
Cobb to traverse, which is not so for
| midable an affair as might be imag-
ined. The sand is very solid and com.
pact, and after a rain dries up in two
hours and becomes as solid as a track
along a sea beach.
Custom Laws Suspended
| The committee will send information
to all the consuls and authorities in the
towns and villages through which the
automobiles will pass, and they will be
exempt from customs.
AS regards the crossing of rivers
where there are no bridges, severa
members of the committee, who have
already travelled in the district, say
that the peasants have large flatboat'
at all points on which they constantly
cross with wagons and cattle, and thai
they will be large enough to ferry the
automobiles over.
A great portion of the line is also
very picturesque, especially the section
between Lake Baikal and Tomsk, where
the road lies along +he foot of lofty
mountains. Colonel Novitzky, a mem
ber of the Russian Geographical society
has just returned fro: trip along this
very route, and according to him those
who take part in this novel drive will
| eniov II Immensely.