PREFACE HE reader need not fear that he is here invited THE to traverse the weary marches of a traveller's diary. In the following pages, incidents have been subordinated to the things suggested by them. The journey herein recounted was made in the latter half of the year 1903. As I have many other duties in life than those of travel and writing, the preparation of this book has been of fitful and slow process. Although originally undertaking the expedition alone, it was by happy chance that I met in Tiflis Captain Fernand Anginieur of the French Army, who became a companion for the journey and a friend for life. He shared with me the responsibili ties of every kind that were to be met after a telegraphed authorisation from his War Minister permitted him definitely to cast his lot with mine. I wish more of my compatriots could meet and know such Frenchmen as are typified in Anginieur. "Brilliant but superficial and frivolous" is a hasty judgment which one often hears from Englishspeaking critics of the French. "Brilliant, loyal, and earnest"-such is the type whom one finds in making the acquaintance of my friend Anginieur. As to the route followed by us: starting at the Caspian Sea, we went by rail castward through Russian Turkestan to Andijan; thence by caravan, over the Trans-Alaï Mountains to Kashgar in Chinese Turkestan; thence skirting the Taklamakan desert, through Yarkand and Khotan to Polu, a village on the slopes of the Kuen Lun Mountains; thence up to the Tibetan plateau, whose north-west corner we explored, passing through the unknown region called Aksai Chin; thence out through Ladak and Kashmir to Rawal Pindi on the railway; thence to Bombay. The disasters which overtook us on the plateau were those more or less familiar in the recitals of other adventurers into this most difficult land. We travelled for eight weeks, never at altitudes less than 15,500 feet, often rising to 18,500 feet. The country is quite barren and uninhabited, and the cold is extreme. Hence the ponies rapidly die, thus imperilling the lives of men, who, at such elevations, must have transport. The hardships were in every respect more severe than those experienced by me in a considerable journey in Africa-from Somaliland to Khartoum. The Turkestan region, at a much lower level than Tibet (about 3500 feet), offered little difficulty. Its historical interest is great, and has direct relation with the development of European civilisation. Geographically and topographically the Central Asian region differs so much from familiar lands that it must be closely studied in order to be understood. In many parts of Asia (but not all), the civilisations, both past and present, have had as their physical basis a highly developed irrigation system. Consideration of the facts presented to the traveller and to the student has led me to conclude that irrigation-civilisations are of a special type. They are easily distinguishable, not only from commercial or |