RARE ANIMALS FOUND

Hokitika Guardian, 1 February 1926, Page 4

RARE ANIMALS FOUND

ROOSEVELT BROTHERS IN TURKESTAN. SRINAGAR i Kashmir). I lie Sinipson-Roosevelt Field .Museum Expedition, comprised of Theodore ami Kermit Roosevelt, sons of the late President Roosevelt, Mr George Clierrie of the National Natural History Museum ot Amen’ea. and auutliei. have returned to Srinagar Irom their tour in search of specimens oi rare plants and animals in Turkestan.

The Roosevelt brothers looked like patriarchal arrivals from another world due in the long hoards they had grown and the general unkempt and carewont appearance, caused by the hardships they had endured on their long trek in the wilds. Their camp was attacked by starving wolves, who. however, only succeeded in destroying and eating some of their ponies. From a naturalistic point of view ' expedition has been very .successful, some remarkable specimens of the rarer classes of wild animals having been obtained. Homo of these arc regarded as constituting a world's record.

Specimens obtained were Bliaral. o wild blue sheep ; I’nis Areltirus ; fou beads of Ovis Poli (sheep), measurin' more than SOin : Tibetan ibex, tncastir ing sPiin. ; and a goitred gazelle. Mos 1 of these are extremely rare. 1.300-.miles’ tour.

The Netherlands Central .Asia Expedition has safely returned after having covered 1,300 miles on a tour of exploration, 600 miles of which have been through unknown and very dangerous mountain regions.

The expedition has discovered the sources of the Ilunza. Khunierah, and Shimshal rivers, and lias surveyed the immense glaciers on the north side of the Karakorum Mountains, in Eastern Turkestan. It has also explored the untrodden Batura glacier, which has a length o! 37 miles, probably the longest in Asia, and has mapped out 2,500 square miles of pijoviously unknown country.

The Karakorum, north of which the expedition lias been investigating the great glaciers, is the region stretching from North Chinn to Afghanistan and known under Hie generic term of Mongolia. There are also two cities of this name, ttno was built at the foundation of the .Mongolian monarchy by Jenghiz Khan (1162-1227), but was laid to waste some centuries ago. Koiv people have heen anywhere near he regions investigated by the Netherlands expedition (the Roosevelt brothers bare also been operating in this region). The valley of the Huuza is surrounded by a chain of snowcapped peaks and brightened with all the radiant beauty that cultivation adds to these mountain valleys, blit as a rule the valleys are barren of vegetation.