________________
NOVEMBER, 1917)
A THIRD JOURNEY OF EXPLORATION IN CENTRAL ASIA
253
archæology, if I may say so, as a series of signposts; and very useful he has found it, as he has confessed. But when one considers that he begins with the Palæolithic period; which you may put back to any remote date, and comes up to something like the seventh or eighth century, and that we have withal not one single piece of these antiquarian remains before us, it is somewhat hopeless to discuss the archæological questions at present. When these remains come to Europe to be studied they will be distributed amongst a number of distinguished scholars, and will then go back to the Central Indian Museum which is to be established at Delhi. That, I am sure, is a very proper place for them. I have myself taken considerable interest in the Museum, and have gladly given advice on certain administrative points regarding it, but a difficulty I find as an archæologist, domiciled in England and incapable of leaving it for more than a few months, is that there will be no opportunity for European students ever to consult these antiquities, except for those fortunate ones who are able to go anywhere at any time and for as long as they please. Sir Aurel Stein's first antiquarian results were divided between the Government of India and the British Museum. There is no difficulty therefore to some extent in still seeing in England the type of object that was discovered on the first expedition. With regard to the later expeditions the case is different, and I think presents a difficulty for the people living in the British Islands of judging the culture that belongs to Central Asia, to these ancient civilizations, dating from a century or two before our era to several centuries afterwards. Beyond the small collections to be found in Paris, nowhere in Europe will any of these remains be seen. It seems to me a pity that these objects of extraordinary interest, covering almost all periods of human activity and human industry, are not to be represented at all in these islands. I think that some measures should be taken by which adequate representations of these very interesting historical and religious remains should find their place somewhere within reach of the ordinary British citizen.
Sir Francis Younghusband : As a traveller in both Chinese Turkestan and also on the Pamirs I can testify to the splendid exploit of our lecturer this evening. I know well the hardships he must have gone through and the indomitable courage which actuated him in carrying out these explorations. Since the time of the great Russian, General Prjevalsky, there has been no traveller in Central Asia who has shown so great a persistence over such a large number of years, and such courage and determination in carrying out his explorations, or has brought back such fruitful results, as Sir Aurel Stein. I wish to congratulate him most sincerely on his magnificent achievement.
Sir Henry Trotter : Some years ago I had the pleasure on the occasion of Sir Aurel Stein's last lecture before the Society of congratulating him on the success of his work, and I laid particular stress upon the magnetic influence by which he seemed to attract such very different persons as the Trustees of the British Museum, the Viceroy of India, the personnel with whom he worked, and last but not least the Taotai of the Temple of the Thousand Buddhas. It is gratifying to note that he has by no means lost that magnetic power, as is proved by the record of his journey, the splendid work of his surveyor Lal Singh, and the excellent reception of the lecturer by the Russian and other authorities with whom he canne in contact.
I should have liked to have made some remarks on a good many points (see noto following the discussion), but the lateness of the hour prevents me from doing so. I will only take up your time with one. I was in Central Asia forty-three years ago and know many parts of the ground described by Sir Aurel. The point to which I wish to refer is the great problein as to the principal source of the Oxus. River.
Lord Curzon a good many years ago gave in this hall an account of his travels in the Pamirs, and of his discovery in the mountains of Kanjud of a glacier from which flowed a river that, as he maintained, was the principal source of the Oxus. As a result of my own
