In the Heart of a Continent1

Abstract

THE small size of this record of ten years' travel is in keeping with the character of the author, as revealed in his pages. It is rare to meet a man so simple, brave, and kind-hearted as Captain Younghusband, and rarer still to find a book of travel so straightforward, concise, and modest as this. Many volumes have been written by travellers who have spent fewer months than Captain Younghusband has spent years in Central Asia, and without them it would perhaps have been difficult for us to estimate the magnitude of the difficulties, the overcoming of which the author so quietly relates. But this book differs from those by an entire absence of “padding,” of hearsay statements, and of rash speculation. There are chapters indeed which are not purely descriptive, dealing in fact with the opinions formed and the thoughts suggested by ten years largely spent in the most remote and desolate regions of the earth. These thoughts and opinions are perhaps the most striking part of the book, showing in a remarkable manner the power of travel and the contemplation (rather than the study) of nature in educating an appreciative mind. To read the following extract from the five chapters of “Impressions of Travel,” one would hardly suspect the author of being a young soldier:—