The New Conquest of Central Asia: A Narrative of the Explorations of the Central Asiatic Expeditions in Mongolia and China, 1921-1930

REPRINT. Special Description Note- This is not a print on demand edition. Care has been taken to enhance and improve the original text whenever possible. Martino Publishing follows the standards of traditional printing and quality is a primary concern. We distinguish ourselves from Print on Demand by our quality controls, paper quality and binding quality. Hardbound. Large Quarto. L, 678 p. col. front., With 128 plates and 12 illustrations in the text and three maps at end. New York, The American Museum of Natural History, 1932. This bulky volume presents in narrative form the adventures, travels, and discoveries of the largest and most highly organized land expeditions which have ever embarked from the United States of America. It covers ten years of work and five seasons in the field. The cost was over 600,000 dollars and the European staff comprised thirty-four experts, of whom five were topographers. The value of this book is not strictly geographical. Notes on zoology, palaeontology, and topography are scattered throughout the book, together forming a fine picture of the whole object and results of the expedition. The difficulties of the topographers are well exemplified by the account (p. 293) of the survey of a mirage with its lake and hills, in the belief that it was in fact what it looked like. Part I deals with the Mongolian Expeditions in which a fleet of Dodge cars take a leading place and without which such great distances could never have been traversedin the time. But perhaps the outstanding feature of the book is the impor tance and success of correlated scientific work in the field. Its value is amply proved. Zoology, botany, palaeontology, and topography were all brought into contact overa single specimen, and for that Dr. Andrews must take full credit. The genesis of the expeditions dates from Professor Osborn's prediction in 1900 that Asia would prove to have been a great dispersal centre of northern terrestrial mammalian life, and the remarkable fossil discoveries appear to have amply justified the contention. The discovery of the Baluchitherium (pp. 138 et seq.), of the Shovel-toothed Mastodon (Platybelodon), together with a fossil foetus (p. 144), and of some fifty eggsof more than one species of Dinosaur at the now famous Flaming Cliffs of Shabarakh Usu, are among the most sensational and are of world-wide interest. The whole of those ten years' work have been a marvelous triumph of organization, inspired by Professor Osborn and carried out by Dr. Andrews and his staff. The work is profusely illustrated with excellent photographs, and there is a good index.