He then had to undertake a last journey to Suchow. During his stay there he fell ill and suffered the most horrible rheumatic pains. This was perhaps scarcely to be wondered at, for he had travelled without a tent during the winter and slept in the open. Beyond the quack remedies of the country he had no treatment, and when on December 27th he set off again to Tsondol he was in a bad state, and had to lie still for a long time before undertaking the thirty-seven days' journey through the desert to his home in Kuei-hua. On his arrival in Peking on March loth, 193o, he looked like a man of eighty, and could walk only with great difficulty.
The way in which ZIMMERMANN, SÖDERBOM and MA — as long as he lived — managed the Edsen-gol station was indeed worthy of all praise. Each one of them did his utmost in difficult and threatening times to save the station and carry out its program of work. MA was the first, by his journey to Suchow and Lanchow, to expose himself for the sake of the station to the petty exacerbations of Kansu officialdom. SÖDERBOM was the next, and he suffered most personal discomfort, in being thrown into one of those beastly Chinese prisons. But the one who nevertheless bore the brunt of the task was Major ZIMMERMANN, who was left in charge of the station. And his work was certainly not made easier by MA'S tragic death. With admirable faithfulness ZIMMERMANN took the readings of his instruments, without missing a single observation. In the fulfilling of his duty he was indeed a model; and he has in the highest degree merited our gratitude and admiration.
Fig. 'o. Head of an antelope (Gazella subgutturosa).
IIIF Color HighRes
