baggage animals and most of his men, passed through
China and reached Shanghai.
Bower, accompanied by Dr. Thorold, on leaving
Arport Tso, passed Aru Tso and made direct for Lhasa.
His expedition was also stopped by Tibetan officials when
still many marches distant from the sacred c ity ; he
therefore proceeded due north, and finally emerged also
at Shanghai.
The dangers incurred by these expeditions did not,
unfortunately, result in a compensatory addition to our
knowledge of the country. Wellby’s map, mainly owing
to the incompetence of his native surveyor, was practically
useless; so misleading was it, indeed, that it is
impossible to follow clearly the route taken.
Bower achieved a more successful result, though but
little of the country on either side of the route was
mapped.
Deasy, on the other hand, made a valuable and
accurate survey, a large number of peaks being triangulated,
and the intervening districts filled in with
good topographical details.
Our expedition was undertaken with the object
of verifying the earlier results, filling in any variant
gaps, and, especially, penetrating and exploring the
hitherto unknown land.
In 1895 I had visited Zanskar and Lahoul, in
1900 Baltistan and Ladak, and, later, the valleys of
the Pangong. In 1902 I had entered the Chang-
chenmo Valley, and, pushing on over the Lanak La to
Arport Tso, reached a point not far from the shores
of Shemen Tso. All these journeys were undertaken
for the sake of sport, and we depended entirely upon
the rifle for our supplies of food.
I returned to Leh in the latter year, so much
impressed by what I had seen that I had already
formed the determination to do my utmost to visit
this weird and fascinating country in the following
spring, in order to explore and survey it in an easterly
direction as far as possible.
On my return to Peshawar, I wrote to Colonel
St. G. Gore, late Surveyor-General of India, asking for
his advice and assistance. These were both generously
accorded, and conduced very largely to the success of
the work which we were finally enabled to perform.
To Colonel Gore’s invariable courtesy and willingness
to render help, travellers in Southern Asia have been
indebted for several years past.
To the British officer desirous of undertaking
extended travel, the greatest impediment is the
difficulty of obtaining leave of absence—a difficulty
which, it is needless to say, is increased if the applicant
has no particular claim to such leave. The matter,
however, had to be faced, and in this particular
instance was most satisfactorily settled by my Colonel
according to me six and a half months’ leave of absence
from the regiment.
I had now obtained the necessary leave, the services
of a sub-surveyor (kindly placed at my disposal by
Colonel Gore), and permission from the Foreign Office
to cross the frontier into Tibet.
There remained the most important problem, viz.,
the selection of a suitable compagnon de voyage; but,
fortunately, this proved to be easy of solution, as the
very man was at hand in the person of Lieutenant
A. J. G. Hargreaves (of my regiment), with whom I
had travelled on previous occasions. He was about to
proceed to England on leave, but when asked to join
in my attempt to penetrate into this inhospitable land,
he gladly consented.