Abstract
AT the meeting of the Royal Geographical Society, on April 9, Mr. St. George Littledale read a paper on his recent journey across Central Asia. Mr. and Mrs. Littledale left England in January 1893, with the intention of crossing Asia from west to east, filling up some blanks in the map, and procuring specimens of the wild camel. After purchasing nearly two pony-loads of silver Yamboos, known on the Chinese coast as Sycee Silver, they travelled in carts to Kurla, where they organized a caravan of twenty ponies and forty donkeys, and followed the river Tarim to Lob Nor. They camped by the Lob Nor swamp, but found the water too salt near the edge to drink; by wading out some distance they were able to get some less brackish, which was just drinkable. Along the Altyn Tag range, as far as the Galechan Bulak, there was a certain amount of water and grazing. This was the point where the great Russian traveller, Prjevalsky, turned back; but beyond, the desert was of an appalling nature—hardly any grass was to be found, and water was very scarce; all the men suffered greatly from thirst, the animals lost flesh rapidly, and many died. Water as a rule was only found every second day. Mr. Littledale in this district shot four wild camels, one of which he has presented to the British Museum. Prjevalsky's wild horse was not seen. The guides were thorough scoundrels, and tried to wreck the expedition in everyway; on one occasion they denied the existence of a spring from which they were discovered getting water secretly during the night.
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Across Central Asia. Nature 49, 567 (1894). https://doi.org/10.1038/049567a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/049567a0