Abstract
A TELEGRAM from Vyernyi—one of those small Russian towns which have grown of late in the outspurs of the Tian-Shan Mountains—announces the death of Prjevalsky, the bold and indefatigable explorer of the wildernesses of Central Asia. In September last, immediately after having terminated the work which embodies the results of his fourth great journey to Central Asia, he started on a new journey, the fifth, thus prosecuting again what has been the aim of his life during the last twelve years—that of reaching Lhassa in Tibet, and opening to science the lofty plateaus and highlands which separate East Turkestan from India. This time he proposed to start from Russian Turkestan, and his expedition had to be equipped at Vyernyi, on the north of Lake Issyk-kul. He arrived at Tashkend in October, and had left it on October 13 (old style?) on his way to Vyernyi, but he seems not to have reached that town, and must have died on the route, as far as we can judge from the telegram. The new expedition, which promised to be even richer in scientific results than all those which preceded it, was thus prevented. But Prjevalsky has left, in the travelling companions who remained so true to him in his adventurous journeys, a staff of young men who will certainly continue his work, and sooner or later open to science the dreary highlands which have baffled so many a bold explorer.
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K., P. N. M. Prjevalsky . Nature 39, 31–34 (1888). https://doi.org/10.1038/039031d0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/039031d0