American Geographical Society

Travels in Chinese TibetMinya Gongkar: Forschungsreise ins Hochgebirge von Chinesisch Tibet by Arnold HeimReview by: H. de TerraGeographical Review, Vol. 25, No. 1 (Jan., 1935), pp. 169-170Published by: American Geographical SocietyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/209230 .

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GEOGRAPHICAL REVIEWS GEOGRAPHICAL REVIEWS

sky did not determine the annexation to the United States. The sky did not locate in detail the path of the iron horse across the domain. Bright sunshine may have relieved aborigines and Mexicans from some of the penalties of disregard of sanita- tion, yet they have always paid heavy toll. The reviewer fancies prospecting for metals has been much easier for the nakedness of the arid landscape, but this has been effective mainly since the American era. Whatever blessings sprang from the bright sky and the lack of rain have been costly blessings. The arid handicap is precisely what the Americans of New Mexico have striven best and hardest to over- come. Sky-determined New Mexico was backward New Mexico, and the training for the work that has gone so far in transforming the state from what near-by Mexico is today was acquired under other skies. No one who has interest in our Southwest can afford to neglect Dr. Calvin's work, though the sky determination is of other days. But the book needs a map. Nothing less than the Land Office map of New Mexico will suffice to unravel the text. The pictures are not on a level with the text, though pleasing. It is useless to speak of "astonishing inventiveness" and " sensitive and accomplished artists" in face of the sample of Mimbres black-on-white ware facing page I34. Nevertheless, the book is largely and successfully pictorial.

MARK JEFFERSON

TRAVELS IN CHINESE TIBET

ARNOLD HEIM. Minya Gongkar: Forschungsreise ins Hochgebirge von Chinesisch Tibet. 244 pp.; maps, ills. Hans Huber, Bern and Berlin, 1933. Mk. 8. 9Y/ x 63 / inches.

This travel account by the well known Swiss geologist deals with a fascinating, though hitherto neglected, corner of Asia. For it is here in the borderland of China and Burma that High Asia finds an outlet toward the tropical south. Its rivers, born in the barren rock waste of northern Tibet, repeat in Sechwan the great south- ward deflection of the ranges, thus permitting the monsoon to travel far inland. Man, like other organisms, followed the fertile belts from the coast northward, and thus the Chinese agriculturist met the Tibetan nomad on the grassy uplands of the plateau. This appears to be the principal theme of Dr. Heim's book.

Accompanied by Chinese students and a Swiss topographer, the meagerly equipped party started from Canton to Yunnan and Tatsienlu, the "gate to Tibet." From here the expedition proceeded into the mountain massif of Minya Gongkar (7587 meters, according to the Sikong Expedition. See R. L. Burdsall: The Altitude and Location of Minya Konka, Geogr. Rev., Vol. 24, I1934, pp. I 18-I28), crossed into the Tibetan plateau district of Nya-rong, and returned via Tatsienlu and the "Red Basin" of Sechwan to Nanking. This high-spirited scientific endeavor was carried out perforce under extremely strenuous conditions. For months the author lived and traveled in the style of the Chinese or Tibetan native.

Heim's description is vivid and colorful, and his photographs are beautiful and of great interest to the geographer. The blend of narrative and scientific writing is accomplished most successfully where the flora is described, but his geological com- ments often seem rather disconnected and difficult to follow. There are unique pictures of mountains sliced by gaping earthquake fissures, photographs that deserve to be reproduced in our geological textbooks. The recency of crustal movements has, as in the Himalayas, determined the floral and faunal aspects of this country. Tropical flora, for instance, mingles with alpine forms peculiar to the Tibetan plateau. The discovery of paleolithic artifacts in the loess cover of the Tibetan upland is very important; for it indicates the existence of ancient man before the uplift was fully completed. The dynamic element in the young history of these mountains seems reflected in the revolutionary upheavals of the modern Chinese populace,

sky did not determine the annexation to the United States. The sky did not locate in detail the path of the iron horse across the domain. Bright sunshine may have relieved aborigines and Mexicans from some of the penalties of disregard of sanita- tion, yet they have always paid heavy toll. The reviewer fancies prospecting for metals has been much easier for the nakedness of the arid landscape, but this has been effective mainly since the American era. Whatever blessings sprang from the bright sky and the lack of rain have been costly blessings. The arid handicap is precisely what the Americans of New Mexico have striven best and hardest to over- come. Sky-determined New Mexico was backward New Mexico, and the training for the work that has gone so far in transforming the state from what near-by Mexico is today was acquired under other skies. No one who has interest in our Southwest can afford to neglect Dr. Calvin's work, though the sky determination is of other days. But the book needs a map. Nothing less than the Land Office map of New Mexico will suffice to unravel the text. The pictures are not on a level with the text, though pleasing. It is useless to speak of "astonishing inventiveness" and " sensitive and accomplished artists" in face of the sample of Mimbres black-on-white ware facing page I34. Nevertheless, the book is largely and successfully pictorial.

MARK JEFFERSON

TRAVELS IN CHINESE TIBET

ARNOLD HEIM. Minya Gongkar: Forschungsreise ins Hochgebirge von Chinesisch Tibet. 244 pp.; maps, ills. Hans Huber, Bern and Berlin, 1933. Mk. 8. 9Y/ x 63 / inches.

This travel account by the well known Swiss geologist deals with a fascinating, though hitherto neglected, corner of Asia. For it is here in the borderland of China and Burma that High Asia finds an outlet toward the tropical south. Its rivers, born in the barren rock waste of northern Tibet, repeat in Sechwan the great south- ward deflection of the ranges, thus permitting the monsoon to travel far inland. Man, like other organisms, followed the fertile belts from the coast northward, and thus the Chinese agriculturist met the Tibetan nomad on the grassy uplands of the plateau. This appears to be the principal theme of Dr. Heim's book.

Accompanied by Chinese students and a Swiss topographer, the meagerly equipped party started from Canton to Yunnan and Tatsienlu, the "gate to Tibet." From here the expedition proceeded into the mountain massif of Minya Gongkar (7587 meters, according to the Sikong Expedition. See R. L. Burdsall: The Altitude and Location of Minya Konka, Geogr. Rev., Vol. 24, I1934, pp. I 18-I28), crossed into the Tibetan plateau district of Nya-rong, and returned via Tatsienlu and the "Red Basin" of Sechwan to Nanking. This high-spirited scientific endeavor was carried out perforce under extremely strenuous conditions. For months the author lived and traveled in the style of the Chinese or Tibetan native.

Heim's description is vivid and colorful, and his photographs are beautiful and of great interest to the geographer. The blend of narrative and scientific writing is accomplished most successfully where the flora is described, but his geological com- ments often seem rather disconnected and difficult to follow. There are unique pictures of mountains sliced by gaping earthquake fissures, photographs that deserve to be reproduced in our geological textbooks. The recency of crustal movements has, as in the Himalayas, determined the floral and faunal aspects of this country. Tropical flora, for instance, mingles with alpine forms peculiar to the Tibetan plateau. The discovery of paleolithic artifacts in the loess cover of the Tibetan upland is very important; for it indicates the existence of ancient man before the uplift was fully completed. The dynamic element in the young history of these mountains seems reflected in the revolutionary upheavals of the modern Chinese populace,

I69 I69

This content downloaded from 169.229.32.137 on Thu, 8 May 2014 18:23:46 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

THE GEOGRAPHICAL REVIEW THE GEOGRAPHICAL REVIEW THE GEOGRAPHICAL REVIEW

which is pictured as passing through a state of spiritual fermentation. The wide range of subtle observations makes this book very illuminating reading.

H. DE TERRA

REGIONAL RELATIONSHIPS OF THE TOWNS OF EAST PRUSSIA

HANS KELLETAT. Die Stldte Ostpreussens in ihrer geographischen Lage und deren Auswirkungen: Ein Beitrag zur Heimatkunde. Maps, diagrs., bibliogr. Veroffentl. Geogr. Instituts der Albertus-Univ. zu Konigsberg Pr., N. F., Reihe Geographie No. 7, I934.

The origin, age, and distribution of the cities of East Prussia present a favorable

background for an attempt to work out principles underlying the growth and develop- ment of trade centers. In his investigation of these centers the author aims to record only those aspects that allow scientific exactness in observation. He admits quite frankly his inability to arrive at the definition of rigid laws or principles. Variables are exceedingly numerous. Cities may be classified into certain types, but while

any one city possesses the characteristics of its class, it also shows some of the characteristics of the other classes or types. Dr. Kelletat, however, hopes that

dependable conclusions may be reached when every community is analyzed in minute detail not only within its political limits but with respect to other centers.

Among the many interesting phases of the dissertation one worthy of especial note is a series of population graphs of some seventy-six centers, for the period 1782- I933. The year of the first appearance of the railroad is marked on each graph, allowing a comparison of the pre- and post-railroad eras. Whereas stimulation of population growth often corresponds with the introduction of the railroad, as popular impression would expect, the number of instances where centers have not responded in this manner is almost startling: in a few cases an actual decline in population is the first reaction. Space here does not allow a discussion of all the ramifications of this situation, but attention is directed to it as an illustration of the complexity of the geographic problems in such analysis and the caution that geographers must observe in reaching their conclusions. EUGENE VAN CLEEF

EARLY MAN IN THE NILE VALLEY

K. S. SANDFORD AND W. J. ARKELL. Paleolithic Man and the Nile Valley in Nubia and Upper Egypt. xvii and 92 pp.; maps, diagrs., ills., index. (Univ. of Chicago, Oriental Inst. Publs., Vol. 17; Prehistoric Survey of Egypt and Western Asia, Vol. 2.) The University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1933. $6.oo. 12 x 912

inches.

For several years the authors have studied prehistoric Egypt, and this volume is their second effort toward a synthetic survey-a difficult matter and one in which

finality has by no means been reached. The Nile from Nubia to Esna passes mainly over Nubian sandstone with igneous

and metamorphic rocks at the cataracts; north of Esna it flows through a continuous and broadening plain bounded on each side by the high cliffs of the limestone plateau. The authors claim that the Nile Valley in Nubia and Egypt has been formed by denudation and not by tectonic change. They think that a long narrow gulf existed

through part of the Pliocene period and that its northern part contained fresh water. The actual valley of the Nile in Nubia is stated to be post-Pliocene, and the Nile is

supposed to have cut gorges here during a period of degradation dated culturally as lasting from the Lower Paleolithic to the Mousterian phase. The Nile did this with the help of water from the Red Sea hills and Nubia; if there was a contribution from the south, it was not the mass of water that the great river now derives from

which is pictured as passing through a state of spiritual fermentation. The wide range of subtle observations makes this book very illuminating reading.

H. DE TERRA

REGIONAL RELATIONSHIPS OF THE TOWNS OF EAST PRUSSIA

HANS KELLETAT. Die Stldte Ostpreussens in ihrer geographischen Lage und deren Auswirkungen: Ein Beitrag zur Heimatkunde. Maps, diagrs., bibliogr. Veroffentl. Geogr. Instituts der Albertus-Univ. zu Konigsberg Pr., N. F., Reihe Geographie No. 7, I934.

The origin, age, and distribution of the cities of East Prussia present a favorable

background for an attempt to work out principles underlying the growth and develop- ment of trade centers. In his investigation of these centers the author aims to record only those aspects that allow scientific exactness in observation. He admits quite frankly his inability to arrive at the definition of rigid laws or principles. Variables are exceedingly numerous. Cities may be classified into certain types, but while

any one city possesses the characteristics of its class, it also shows some of the characteristics of the other classes or types. Dr. Kelletat, however, hopes that

dependable conclusions may be reached when every community is analyzed in minute detail not only within its political limits but with respect to other centers.

Among the many interesting phases of the dissertation one worthy of especial note is a series of population graphs of some seventy-six centers, for the period 1782- I933. The year of the first appearance of the railroad is marked on each graph, allowing a comparison of the pre- and post-railroad eras. Whereas stimulation of population growth often corresponds with the introduction of the railroad, as popular impression would expect, the number of instances where centers have not responded in this manner is almost startling: in a few cases an actual decline in population is the first reaction. Space here does not allow a discussion of all the ramifications of this situation, but attention is directed to it as an illustration of the complexity of the geographic problems in such analysis and the caution that geographers must observe in reaching their conclusions. EUGENE VAN CLEEF

EARLY MAN IN THE NILE VALLEY

K. S. SANDFORD AND W. J. ARKELL. Paleolithic Man and the Nile Valley in Nubia and Upper Egypt. xvii and 92 pp.; maps, diagrs., ills., index. (Univ. of Chicago, Oriental Inst. Publs., Vol. 17; Prehistoric Survey of Egypt and Western Asia, Vol. 2.) The University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1933. $6.oo. 12 x 912

inches.

For several years the authors have studied prehistoric Egypt, and this volume is their second effort toward a synthetic survey-a difficult matter and one in which

finality has by no means been reached. The Nile from Nubia to Esna passes mainly over Nubian sandstone with igneous

and metamorphic rocks at the cataracts; north of Esna it flows through a continuous and broadening plain bounded on each side by the high cliffs of the limestone plateau. The authors claim that the Nile Valley in Nubia and Egypt has been formed by denudation and not by tectonic change. They think that a long narrow gulf existed

through part of the Pliocene period and that its northern part contained fresh water. The actual valley of the Nile in Nubia is stated to be post-Pliocene, and the Nile is

supposed to have cut gorges here during a period of degradation dated culturally as lasting from the Lower Paleolithic to the Mousterian phase. The Nile did this with the help of water from the Red Sea hills and Nubia; if there was a contribution from the south, it was not the mass of water that the great river now derives from

which is pictured as passing through a state of spiritual fermentation. The wide range of subtle observations makes this book very illuminating reading.

H. DE TERRA

REGIONAL RELATIONSHIPS OF THE TOWNS OF EAST PRUSSIA

HANS KELLETAT. Die Stldte Ostpreussens in ihrer geographischen Lage und deren Auswirkungen: Ein Beitrag zur Heimatkunde. Maps, diagrs., bibliogr. Veroffentl. Geogr. Instituts der Albertus-Univ. zu Konigsberg Pr., N. F., Reihe Geographie No. 7, I934.

The origin, age, and distribution of the cities of East Prussia present a favorable

background for an attempt to work out principles underlying the growth and develop- ment of trade centers. In his investigation of these centers the author aims to record only those aspects that allow scientific exactness in observation. He admits quite frankly his inability to arrive at the definition of rigid laws or principles. Variables are exceedingly numerous. Cities may be classified into certain types, but while

any one city possesses the characteristics of its class, it also shows some of the characteristics of the other classes or types. Dr. Kelletat, however, hopes that

dependable conclusions may be reached when every community is analyzed in minute detail not only within its political limits but with respect to other centers.

Among the many interesting phases of the dissertation one worthy of especial note is a series of population graphs of some seventy-six centers, for the period 1782- I933. The year of the first appearance of the railroad is marked on each graph, allowing a comparison of the pre- and post-railroad eras. Whereas stimulation of population growth often corresponds with the introduction of the railroad, as popular impression would expect, the number of instances where centers have not responded in this manner is almost startling: in a few cases an actual decline in population is the first reaction. Space here does not allow a discussion of all the ramifications of this situation, but attention is directed to it as an illustration of the complexity of the geographic problems in such analysis and the caution that geographers must observe in reaching their conclusions. EUGENE VAN CLEEF

EARLY MAN IN THE NILE VALLEY

K. S. SANDFORD AND W. J. ARKELL. Paleolithic Man and the Nile Valley in Nubia and Upper Egypt. xvii and 92 pp.; maps, diagrs., ills., index. (Univ. of Chicago, Oriental Inst. Publs., Vol. 17; Prehistoric Survey of Egypt and Western Asia, Vol. 2.) The University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1933. $6.oo. 12 x 912

inches.

For several years the authors have studied prehistoric Egypt, and this volume is their second effort toward a synthetic survey-a difficult matter and one in which

finality has by no means been reached. The Nile from Nubia to Esna passes mainly over Nubian sandstone with igneous

and metamorphic rocks at the cataracts; north of Esna it flows through a continuous and broadening plain bounded on each side by the high cliffs of the limestone plateau. The authors claim that the Nile Valley in Nubia and Egypt has been formed by denudation and not by tectonic change. They think that a long narrow gulf existed

through part of the Pliocene period and that its northern part contained fresh water. The actual valley of the Nile in Nubia is stated to be post-Pliocene, and the Nile is

supposed to have cut gorges here during a period of degradation dated culturally as lasting from the Lower Paleolithic to the Mousterian phase. The Nile did this with the help of water from the Red Sea hills and Nubia; if there was a contribution from the south, it was not the mass of water that the great river now derives from

I70 I70 I70

This content downloaded from 169.229.32.137 on Thu, 8 May 2014 18:23:46 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions