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 across the great northern plateau or Changtang till they reached the south-east side of the Garing t'so, in about 31° 30′ N. and 89° 10′ E. At this point Bower was stopped by some of the headmen of the Tibetan pastoral tribes (here under the rule of Lhasa), and obliged to make a long circuit to the north well out of Lhasa territory, and then eastward—till he struck the road to Chiamdo through Gyade or Chinese Tibet. Crossing the Sining-Lhasa road a little south of the Dang la range, and about two days' journey north of Nagchuka, Captain Bower crossed the Su chu, and following a course parallel to the Giarna-nu chu, he made his way to Riwoche and thence to Chiamdo, from which town he followed the Lhasa-Tachienlu high road to the latter town, which he reached on the 10th of February 1892. The results of Captain Bower's journey were all of first-class importance.

Miss Annie R. Taylor, an Englishwoman of the China Inland Mission, started from Tao-chow (Kansuh) in September 1892,

accompanied only by five Asiatics. Passing by the famous lamasery of Labrang, south of the Yellow river, she crossed that river and traversed the southern part of the country inhabited by the predatory Tibetan tribes called Golok. Thence, after crossing the upper Yalung, which flows by the town of Kanze, she pursued her journey to the upper course of the Yangtse-kiang (Dre chu), crossing that river somewhere near where A.-K. had crossed it in 1881 and Rockhill in 1889, and then came to the town of Gye-Yekundo. From this point she seems to have followed the Chiamdo road to near that town, when she turned westwards and continued in that direction till she came on the high road from Lhasa to Sining Fu somewhere north of Nagchuka. Here, like all other European travellers who have tried to reach Lhasa from the north, she was stopped by the Lhasan authorities. She appears to have followed about the same route on her way back to China, for she again went to Yekundo and thence by the high road, followed previously by A.-K. and Rockhill, to Tachienlu in Sze-ch'uen, where she arrived on the 12th of April 1893.

In 1893 MM J. L. Dutreuil de Rhins and Fernand Grenard, both Frenchmen, left Cherchen, with Lhasa as their objective. After crossing the Kara muren davan in the Arka Tagh, they entered the lake region of north Tibet and followed a general southerly direction across low ranges of hills and by numerous small lakes till they arrived in 32° 30′ N., where they changed direction to east-south-east, passing to the north of the Chargut and Zilling lakes. The travellers were able to push on as far as the north-eastern bank of the great Tengri Nor, which they reached on the 30th of November 1893. Here they were finally stopped by the Tibetans, and after a delay of six weeks passed in vain attempts to obtain permission to go to Lhasa, they were only allowed to proceed to Nagchuka on the Sining-Lhasa road, and to continue by the Gyade route to Yekundo, near the upper Dre chu, and thence to Sining in Kansuh. From Nagchuka the travellers followed a heretofore unexplored road through the Gyade country, crossing Rockhill's route in the Pere-Sangyi districts near Tashiling (their Tachi gomba). The road followed by them to Yekundo is called by Tibetans the upper road (gong lam), and had apparently been followed previously by Miss Taylor. Reaching Yekundo (or Giergundo) on the 21st of May 1894, the travellers started for the Koko Nor and Sining on the 1st of June; but the party was attacked near Tungbumdo (Tumbumdo of previous travellers), and Dutreuil de Rhins was killed on the 5th of June. M Grenard after a few days resumed his march, passed east of the Noring t'so, the eastern extremity of Tosu Nor, and thence by the south-east corner of Koko Nor to the town of Sining Fu in Kansuh. The results of this exploration were a large number of maps and a report of great scientific importance.

Mr Littledale, an Englishman, accompanied by his wife, left Khotan in the early part of 1895, and travelling thence to

Cherchen, he turned southwards, and following up the course of the Cherchen darya to a point near its source, he continued in that direction between 87° and 89° E. across the northern plateau of Tibet till he reached the Zilling (or Garing) t'so. Pursuing, amid great difficulties, his

southerly course, he finally reached the western bank of Tengri Nor. Pushing rapidly on in the direction of Lhasa, when not over 50 m. away from the city (camp, 30° 12′ 12″ N.) he was finally stopped by the Lhasan authorities and obliged, in great part on account of the severe illness of Mrs Littledale, to give up the attempt to reach Sikkim, and to take a direct trail to Ladak. In the latter part of this remarkable journey Littledale's route lay parallel but to the south of the routes followed previously by Nain Sing, and more recently by Bower. Passing by Rudok, the party re-entered Ladak at the village of Shushal on the 27th of October 1895, and Leh on the 2nd of November. Mr Littledale surveyed about 1700 m. of country between Cherchen and Shushal, and brought back a valuable collection of plants, which, added to those collected by other travellers in this part of Tibet, enabled botanists considerably to extend their scanty knowledge of this region.

Accompanied by Lieut. N. Malcolm of the 93rd Highlanders, Captain Wellby, of the British army, left Leh on the

4th of May 1896. The travellers were compelled to enter Tibet by way of the Lighten t'so in 35° N. From this point they turned due east and continued, with the usual incidents experienced by all travellers in those regions—cold, storms, lack of food and of grass, loss of ponies and pack animals, &c.—until they reached the northern branch of the Dre chu, the Chumar. Passing into the valley of the Nomoron Gol, south of the Tsaidam, they made their way by Barong Tsaidam to Donkyr and Sining Fu by the high road along the northern shore of the Koko Nor.

Captain Deasy, of the British army, left Leh on the 27th of May 1896, and crossing the Lanak la, passed by the Mangtza t'so,

north of the Horpa t'so, to Yeshil kul. Thence he, endeavoured to proceed due east, but was obliged by the nature of the country to turn south, crossing Bower's route on the west side of the Aru t'so. He finally completed a valuable survey of an important part of Western Tibet.

In 1898 a Dutch missionary in China named Rijnhart started with his wife from the vicinity of Koko Nor, with the intention of

reaching Lhasa, but at the upper Mekong, to the east-north-east of the city, he was murdered, and his wife reached the Chinese province of Sze-ch'uen with great difficulty alone.

In 1896 Sven Hedin, a Swede (1865-), left Kopa, a point about 100 m. south of Cherchen, and after crossing the Arka Tagh

took an easterly course between that range and the western continuation of the Kokoshili range till he entered the valley of the most northerly feeders of the Dre chu, when he passed into the valley of the Naichi Gol and entered the Tsaidam. His careful observations concerning the meteorology of this region are of great value, and his surveys between Kopa and the Naichi Gol were in a country not previously explored. During his second and more important journey in Central Asia (1899-1902), Sven Hedin left Charkhlik, on the edge of the Taklamakan desert, in May 1901, intending to cross Tibet in a diagonal direction to the sources of the Indus. He made crossings of the lofty Arka Tagh and other parallel ranges to the south (running east and west). On his final penetration southward, arriving within fourteen days of Lhasa, he left the bulk of his caravan and pushed rapidly on towards that city, but was stopped when about five days from it (Aug. 5, 1901). Rejoining his caravan he turned westward, and passing through the country previously traversed by Bower and Littledale he reached Leh on the 20th of December 1901. His careful and detailed maps, lake soundings, hydrographic, geological, meteorological and other investigations gave him the highest rank among modern explorers.

On a third journey (1906-1908) he travelled by way of Turkish Armenia, Persia, Baluchistan and India, and entered Tibet by way of the Aksai Chin. Proceeding south-east, or diagonally across the country, he traversed 840 m. of unknown country, investigating the lake Ngangon t'so or Ngantse t'so, which had hitherto been only hypothetically mapped, and marched thence