CHINESE TURKESTAN WITH CARAVAN AND RIFLE. By Percy W. Church.

1907 1st edition. 8vo (147 x 231mm). Ppxii,207,map. B/w photographs, fold-out map to rear. Rough-cut fore-edge. Recased in original cloth, black wapiti head motif to dark-grey cloth, spine titled in gilt to leather label.

The author gives a detailed description of his sporting tour of the Tien Shan Mountains and the corresponding edge of the Tarim Basin, beginning and ending in Kashmir. This was accomplished in the years 1899 and 1900. Sport is the main focus of interest, with observations of the local peoples and their lives. Church wrote the book to avoid wasting the large amount of useful information that he and his companion, J.V. Phelps, had collected in the course of this and previous similar expeditions. The route is described in detail, as is organising and managing a caravan, and the available quarry species and where they can, or are likely to, be found. Chapters include: Outfit, etc; Srinagar to Leh; Leh to Yarkand; Yarkand to Maralbashi and Maralbashi to Aksu; Aksu to Shatta, in Tekkes; Sport in the Tekkes, wapiti; Sport in the Tekkes, ibex; Wapiti and ibex; Roe deer; Kunges to Kuldja; Kuldja to Urumtsi; Urumstsi to Kucha; Kucha to Khotan; Khotan to Shahdula and Leh; Field notes on game. Game of the Tekkes.