Weekly Watertown leader. [volume] (Watertown, Jefferson County, Wis.) 1908-1909, 1908-09-18
EXPLORER EVADES SPIES AND
FINDS COUNTRY NEVER
CROSSED BEFORE.
IN DISGUISE OF A NATIVE.
Burns All European Clothes and Poses
as Driver of Animals, Painting Skin
Color of Ladakhi.
FINDS RIVER WRONGLY MARKED.

LONDON. Sept. IA special dis
patch from Simla, British India, says
that by deceiving the Tibetans regard
ing his intentions, Sven Hedin, the
Swedish explorer, who has just arrived
there after extended explorations III
Tibet, was enabled to evade the Tibetan
spies when lie started i'll December, 1897.
4 short distanc from Karakoram pass
be turned due east and i'll a continuous
fall Of snow and amid great hardships
lie reached AkSai Chin lake in January.
From that on the snow obliterated the
routes and the caravan was III terrible
| straits.
Some of the party suffered from frost
bites and DR.. Hedins feet were frozen.
| II became necessary to kill off their tit,c.,
Of sheep for food. Eventually, however,
! they reached Shementso. More friend
! ~ nomads resupplied him with animals
and twenty days march east and
southeast, passing Lem Chang lake,
brought the explorers to a point where
the plunge into the unknown had to he
made.
Used Disguise to Pass
After burning their European clothes
and everything indicating their national
| lty and hiding their money and inst:u
mentS III rice bags, DR.. Hedin adopted
disguise OF common ladakhi, daily
painting his hands and face a dark color
and pretending to be the driver of am
mails. When wandering tribes met them,
Karin. trustworthy man familiar with
! Tibet, was posing as the head OF the
caravan. Thus they travelled without
discovery for two months III a furious
gale through an unknown tract, ending
! at TongstO.
From March they treversed the
northern edge of a great tract between
| ATTITUDES 30 and 81, stretching from his
| old route to the Brahmaputra, which was
| the great object of his journey. The eX-
| plOrers then marched due south, crossing
several ranges running east and west and
! passing the enormous ice mountain,
known as the Shakangsham, on the east,
from which point flowed a big river
Thence they crossed Landango pass
! into an open valley and Bongda province,
which no European had ever entered, lay
before them. Here precautions We're re-
doubled, and the explorers had several
narrow escapes from discovery by the
! watchful Tibetans
Finds Great Salt Lake.
| DR. Ifedin discovered Lake Chunitso
! and followed its west shore for a whole
day, ana first heard of the great salt
| lake of Tabia TSakha, which is a source
of considerable wealth to the govern
| ment, the salt exports.
| Two more ranges were crossed AMI
an open plain was reached which was
! bounded on the south by a mountain
J range 1000 miles long, stretching east
and west. the grandest physical feature
! north of the Brahmaputra valley. Snow
! and glaciers everywhere bounded the
/ horizon.
| DR.. Hedin was rewarded 10y discov-
| ering the continuity of this chain, which
! H. hnl hoo
| from the north. He crossed the range
eight times at various points, naming
il originally the Ninchan Tangla.
River Wrongly Marked.
The success with which he had met in
| his explorations stimulated linn to at
! tempt the solution of the problem of the
course of the Charta 1sanpo. biz
| tributary of the Brahmaputra. He found
! that its course has been wrongly marked
Oh the maps, and that it is fed from huge
| snow peaks, lake being formed from
! whence the river reached the Brahma-
! putra.
! This was Sven HeGin's third journey
! of exploration in Thibet. His suffermgs
and discoveries in the early ones, prac-
! ticaIly the first revelations Of the myS-
| ferrous realm of the Dalai Lama, are
! Wen known to the public. Tie eXpedi-
! ton now ending was undertaken III DC
! tober, 1903. lie entered by way of Kash-
! gar despite English official opposition
aud crossed the great White desert. 81
Aksa-shn, (; virgin field for adventur-
crS.
Advices from him last January. when
| he was at Ngnzon-Tso, making for Shi-
gatse, 40 miles west of Lhassa, told of
the loss of his entire equipment. only his
| maps and note books being saved. The
| journey was one of frightful rigor The
theater was a plateau 1000 feet higher
than the snow crowned summit of Mont
| Blanc His ponies were literally frozen
! to death.
He reported, however, the location of
many new lakes, rivers and mountains
! Some of the lakes were fresh. some salt
! He found many important gold fields.
! He says the country is of extraordinary
mineral richness. Some prospectors 90
! out from Lhassa, collect nuggets and re
tire rapidly from the deadly cold.
In July a portion of Hedin's party
emerged into India and there was great
! alarm for his safety until II was eX-
/ planned that these were sick men lie had
! sent on ahead while he finished his pro
/ gramme.