The Exploration of Central Asia

Abstract

THE late notice in NATURE of August 14 (p. 378) with reference to the work of exploration now being carried out by the Russians around Kashgar, and that M. Grombchevsky, having received permission and funds to continue his work, was starting for Rudok, is not pleasant reading for Englishmen who know that part of the Himalayas. Rudok is a small place with a fort and Gonpa or monastery, and gives the name to the tract of country lying at the eastern end of the great Pangkong Lake, on the very confines of the territory of the Kashmir State. In 1863 I carried the survey up to that extreme eastern limit, and succeeded by avoiding observation in getting within a very few miles of Rudok itself. The news was soon conveyed there, and the Governor, a native of Lhassa, came out to meet me. He brought presents of tea, sheep, and goats, and was most civil, but begged that I would go back, as he would lose his appointment and be disgraced if it became known that he permitted me to advance further. His politeness disarmed opposition, and my orders, given in writing, were not to get into collision with the Tibetans. We drank a good deal of tea, made in their mode churned with butter and salt, which was always simmering in his tent, and I managed to persuade him to let me ascend a conspicuous peak a few miles further on, and from which I obtained a magnificent panorama of the lake-dotted plain to the eastward of Rudok. We parted excellent friends, and I presented him with a singlebarrelled pistol, in return for the presents he had given us. I feel sure that had I been able to get back there the following year, I could, starting from other points, have got very much further to the eastward, and returned again viâ Rudok itself. I was, however, sent to another and equally interesting part of the Himalayas.