Nikolay Mikhaylovich Przhevalsky

1839-1888

Russian Explorer, Geographer and Zoologist

In the late nineteenth century central and eastern Asia remained a mystery to most of the world beyond the region's inhabitants. Russia, partly because of it's geographic proximity but largely because of it's desire to expand its rule, dispatched Nikolay Przhevalsky on four separate expeditions through east-central Asia. During these trips, Przhevalsky collected thousands of plant and animal specimens, mapped unrecorded stretches of land, rivers, and lakes, and recorded and named previously unseen plants and animals. Of these rare finds, Przhevalsky is best known for discovering the wild camel and the Equus przhevalskii, a stocky, resilient horse he found in Mongolia.

Born in a well-to-do family of Russian and Polish descent, Nikolay Mikhaylovich Przhevalsky grew up in the Siberian wilderness, where he learned to hunt in thick forests filled with wild boar and black bear. Even though he was said to have a photographic memory, Przhevalsky's passion for outdoor activity made him a restless student. He eventually joined the Russian military in Moscow. In order to secure an assignment back in the wilds of Siberia, he studied diligently to gain entry into the Academy of the General Staff in St. Petersburg. He was accepted, and soon thereafter he published Memoirs of a Sportsman, the first of many books on his outdoor experience.

Inspired by the African travels of British explorer David Livingstone (1813-1873), Przhevalsky devoured books about botany and zoology while studying navigation at the Academy. He became a history and geography teacher and wrote a geography textbook in 1865. After years of proposing a geographic expedition through central Asia, and funding his own expedition to the Manchurian and Korean borders, Przhevalsky received funds and support from the Imperial Geographic Society to make a longer journey through central Asia.

In 1870 he left Siberia and traveled south through Peking, across the A-la-shan Desert, around Lake Baikal, and crossed the formidable Gobi Desert to reach Kalgan, China. During the trip, Przhevalsky collected sub-alpine and subtropical botany samples; recorded hundreds of species of birds; and, since his barometer broke early in the expedition, measured and mapped altitude by heating water and recording the temperature at which it boiled. As he approached the Tibetan plateau, a 14,000-foot expanse of frozen tundra, he spotted wild camels, while his own camels succumbed to the lack of oxygen.

Przhevalsky returned to Russia a celebrity, and money and prestigious titles soon followed this sudden fame. He published a book on his travels, Mongolia and the Country of the Tanguts, lectured widely on his plant and animal discoveries and prepared for his next trip. He set off again in 1876, this time through the peaks of Tien Shan, across the ancient city of Lop Nor, and through the Taklan Desert. He spotted wild camels again in the Altyn Tag, and he mapped out the "missing link" of the mountains between Pamir and the Nan Shan. He discovered the wild Mongolian horse in the Dzungarian Desert, known to Mongolians as the "Kurtag," but which he named Equus przhevalskii. He traversed passes higher than 16,000 feet, and he came within 160 miles of Lhasa, the Tibetan spiritual capital and home of the Dalai Lama, before officials turned him back. He returned to Russia through the Jahar Mountains and arrived with carts of rare specimens and news of spotting Equus przhevalskii.

For Przhevalsky's third journey, the Geographic Society asked him to conduct more scientific research, so he searched for—and discovered—the source of the Huan Ho River, while hunting snow leopards and black bear. He found a new, safer trade route from Turkestan to Tsaidan, traveled through the 60-ft-high sand dunes of the Takla Makan, and mapped Khotan. Upon his return he was promoted to Major General, wrote more volumes of his expedition, and prepared for his final journey.

In 1888 Przhevalsky headed off again for Lhasa. He camped and hunted along the River Cher, where a typhoid epidemic had wiped out the local population. He rode on to Lake Karakol, where he quickly became sick and eventually died. His staff buried him on the shores of Lake Karakol, which has been periodically renamed Lake Przhevalsky and where a monument now stands in memory of his accomplishments.

LOLLY MERRELL