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Show .v'O' w -T v?-'. 'c- '- x- A ' H v v lan Aeturn from &uth ff Wlfc. ' r s Hi v - u s uSix A rr: x y -lY- :Yj 4Ai Tfsrkhor J? jKer-mit- Theodore Gs&rls K.CterrJs 7, V l r-'i V Kermit and Theodore f T 0 k c s T A Ni0S ' Off for Wild Placeij . . . i ' In Asia . . 1 By JOHN DICKINSON SHERMAN S . Jj- t -x , .SD when you leave this little .- LC itfc ! J j 1 country and ride three days -v gr fP Ja W, ( 7 ' northeast, always among jj '" Y!Wi Rf1 V ff I mountains, you get to such ) i UL' tiv3!'-, jj' a height that 'tis said to be t&agea&UrAaActti if Lr, the highest place in the i-iTXrt I n U I A . ' world. . . . There are m YS 0 m - 1 great numbers of all kinds r Astor fiju-Jlhar- Kmuhzymst HmJit ot wild beasts: among oth- a ...14 - 1 ers, wild sheep ot great size. 7 By JOHN DICKINSON SHERMAN Sd when you leave this little , ri country and ride three days ' northeast, always among ff 1 mountains, you get to such (f I a height that 'tis said to be rif r the highest place in the . uf , 1 world. . . There are jftj great numbers of all kinds R'lv of wild beasts: among oth-Sa" oth-Sa" ers, wild sheep of great size, laa. ) whose horns are good six palms in length. . . . The plain is called Pamir and you ride across it for twelve days together, finding find-ing nothing but a desert without habitation habi-tation or any green thing, so that travelers trav-elers are obliged to carry with them whatever they have need of. The region re-gion is so lofty and cold that you do not even Bee any birds flying. And I 1 must also notice that, because of this great cold, fire does not burn so brightly, bright-ly, nor give out so much heat as usual, nor does it cook food so effectually. MARCO POLO. How would you like to be this summer sum-mer with Eermit and Theodore Roosevelt, Roose-velt, hunting for Marco Polo's "wild sheep of great size" up In the Thlan Shan mountains of Eastern Turkestan? I thought so. Apparently most of the ten million male Americans between ten and nineteen to say nothing of the grown-ups and women are simply consumed with envy. For, according to their tentative schedule, Ko-Mi and Su-to they are so named in their Chinese credentials are just about now In Srinagar, India, In-dia, with George K. Cherrle, who went ahead to arrange for an outfit of yaks, long-haired ponies and fifty or more natives. They are probably wearing some kind of queer native costume, fussing over their "shootln'-lrons" and casting impatient glances from the Vale of Kashmir toward the giant mountains overhead. The Roosevelts and Cherrle con- Butnte an "American "Amer-ican scientific ex-P ex-P e d 1 1 1 0 n," fi-aanced fi-aanced by James Simpson of Chicago Chi-cago in the Interest Inter-est of the Field museum of that city. The purpose pur-pose is the collection col-lection of the rore animal life of a region practically prac-tically unrepresented unrepre-sented In the museums of this country. The grouped photographs photo-graphs reproduced repro-duced herewith show some of these rare animals. ani-mals. Two rare beasts of prey are the snow eopard and the ong-haired tiger. Then there are ,he goa, scharpoo and burrel, not to "oenUon gazetiaa. antelopes, deer and wild camels. What the expedition wants most, however, Is Marco FoIo'b mountain sheep, Ovis Poll, named for him by latter day naturalists. This sheep was long considered fabulous, but there Is such an animal, unless It has now become extinct. This was settled In 1838, when Lieut. John Wood, an Englishman, Eng-lishman, sent to the Royal Asiatic society an Ovis Poll horn measuring 5G Inches on the curve. The drawing draw-ing reproduced is supposed to portray por-tray a male and female of the species. They strongly suggest our big horn of the rockles, still to be found in Rocky Mountain, Yellowstone and Glacier National parks. This Marco Polo was a Venetian gentleman of the Thirteenth century. In prison at Genoa he entertained his fellow prisoners with marvelous tales of his travels, Later he and a scribe put the tales into "The Book of Ser Marco Polo the Venetion Concerning the Kingdoms and Marvels of the East." The book became the best seller of the medleva. IKerary world. It was universally believed to be one gorgeous fabrication from beginning to end and Marco Polo was honored for many centuries as the world's biggest liar. But time played havoc with Marco Polo's reputation, for most of his tales were found to be true The quoted extract from the thirty-second thirty-second chapter of his book is a good sample of his "true lies." He actually was there about the year 1256 and his description is probably exact. The route he traveled runs up to 20,000 feet in places and water bolls at about 178 degrees. The Roosevelt's are "chips of the old block," "T. R." of "strenuous life" fame. The sons are upholding the Roosevelt tradition. Kermlt Is a seasoned out-of-doors man. He was with his father in Africa and Brazil and has hunted In Alaska,, Manchuria and India. Theodore says he Is the tenderfoot of the party. Cherrie Is a veteran naturalist who has made thirty-nine explorations, including the Roosevelt expedition to the "River of Doubt," but this is b'q first venture in Asiatic hunting. Dangers encountered and hardships endured la the name of sport outnumber outnum-ber even the multitude of sins popularly popular-ly supposed to be covered by charity. The month's trip from New York to Srinagar by sea, rail and motor, was easy. But here's a bare outline of what the hunters are now facing: It will take them a month or so to climb the Burzll trail to Gllglt on the "Roof of the World," the jumplng-off place of clvlllzatio". The narrow and dangerous trail averages an altitude of 17,000 feet, which taxes vitality and Is an acid test of tempers and dispositions. dis-positions. Travel through snow passes Is mostly by night for fear of avalanches. . GcaU-" by R. Lydekkor. Fr- "Wild Oxen. Sh;p and w Ovis Poli, Drawing r-r .-n . ana uiigit is only about halfway half-way to the lofty Pamir plateau. Gllgit and the surrounding region re-gion is a famine country, fed from the valleys below. So the Roosevelts Roose-velts must carry food supplies to last to the Pamir plateau. Time Is precious pre-cious in these mountains. Winter Win-ter closes the passes early and if the Roosevelts don't get back Into In-to the Vale of Kashmir by early October they will either have to stay all winter or go out to Oia north by trails described as " heartbreaking ". |