Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1913-02-28
TRACING A LONG RIVER
Dangers Incurred In Making Correct
Map of Stream.

hangers thcurr0o ih "aN'HS SS'~S
Map of Stream.
Mapmakers often take things fol
granted which are not proved facts
Maps of half century ago show the
Brahmaputra river. in India, In very
different position than 1t Is now known
to occupy, but there is still q section Of
the river nearly a hundred miles lone
which has never been explored, says
the Pathfinder. This section Of the
Brahmaputra constitutes one of the
most interesting geographical puzzles
still remaining to be solved. Most OF
our current maps show the Brahmapu-
ira as taking sharp bend where II
comes through the Himalayas and rep
resent 1t as continuous with the Tsan-
DO river OF Tibet. But there is no ac-
tual warrant for this assumption.
Il is known that the Tsanpo hows
eastward, and about hundred miles
over the mountain river known az the
Dihong comes forth to form later the
Brahmaputra. It Is assumed that these
are one and the same river, but this
has never been proved, notwithstand-
ing the elaborate efforts that have been
made to prove II. II you have courage
and ambition and want to make your
self famous, you might do so by clear
ing up this mystery.
This Is not so easy as 1t looks, how
ever, owing to the hostile nature Of
the wild mountain tribes that inhabii
that region. At one time the plan wai
tried Of sending into Tibet some trus'
| ty natives from India and getting them
to cast into the Tsanpo some logi
marked In such way that they coulc
be identified II they. foated on down
and were later found in the Brahma.
putra. The logs were put In the rtvel
but they never put In an appearance
below. Whether the natives saw them
and took them out or whether they
simply got stranded Is not known Of
course. Anyway the uncertainty abou,
| the river still remains, and on the bes,
maps the curve is shown only by 9
dotted line. It Is believed that there
may be some very high falls on the
river in this unexplored portion, al
the descent is thousands of feet In tht
| 100 miles or so. "a ~ sj.
About two years ago Messrs. VIII
hanson and Gregorson, officials OF ths
British Indian government, penetrated
into this border territory from tht
south, and were murdered by Abol
tribesmen. This last year an expedi.
tion was sent into the regions to fint
and fetch away the offenders. 1t wal
hoped that this party would solve tht
puzzle as to the mysterious river, pu,
they did not go far enough. The fount
| the guilty tribesmen and brought then
out to be tried and punished. The
| Abors are very savage and, suspicious
of all outsiders. They resemble Amer
ican Indians in some Of their ways
Their weapons are bows, and they use
poisoned arrows. In order to oppose the
approach of the expedition they laic
various ingenious traps for them Il
fall into, but the party were to wary
| for them. tis
A number of the chiefs acknowledg,
| ed their submission to the British au
thority by cutting the strings OF theil
bows and breaking their arrows. Tn,
expedition made its way through this
wild country only with the creates,
difficulty. BY turn thick jungles, flood
ed valleys and avalanches OF snow
from the Himalayas were encountered
But the worst terror Of all, 1t proved
was the peculiar leeches that tnfest the
entire country. These blood suckers
would make their way through the
slightest opening In the clothing and
fasten themselves on the bodies Of the
party. The only way they could be
induced to let go was to burn them OF
put carbolic acid on them. Still anoth.
er expedition into the region Is now
being arranged. This will include
detachment Of military police and ar
effort will be made to gradually estab.
,ish law and order into the region.