Captain John Brandt, military man, ethnologist, zoologist, hunter, and rancher, died a couple of weeks ago, just short of his 86th birthday. He was my “other” sponsor for the Explorers Club, (the first, Father Anderson Bakewell, has been profiled here more than once). Both lived lives of adventure and scholarship of a kind that may …
Tag: Asia
Roy’s Rules
Roy Chapman Andrews’ Rules for his 1920 Mongolian expedition, according to Alan Nichols of the Explorer’s Club: – No cussing the weather. – No grouching against the gasoline in the water. – No profanity (except the picturesque variety). – All male members must take share in pumping tires and other work not requiring hot air. …
Rifle quiz
Pure fun for scholars of guns and readers of travel and adventure tales: how many things can you find in common on these little carbines? Oh, I will add one invisible addition for the bolt: The first question is for tecchies; the second for readers and travelers: how many books and writers and scientists and… …
Originals
My visual totem is a Japanese Goshawk– see my pistol, buckle, and more. I have seen originals even if I couldn’t hope to own one, though apparently Paddy Leigh Fermor had TWO. Here are some re- views of just a couple of mine and a hint to some though not all of their models…
Variations on a Theme
Historical Huntingtonia
Since Jane died last week the Weiners, Huntingtons and I have been unearthing some seriously old stuff. I am replacing my useless scanner soon so take this as a preview; the pic of the family Huntington in China in the thirties is really of decent quality, for instance. Below: Virginia Haist Huntington at high school …
Cherkassov from Vladimir
Vladimir Beregovoy now has copies of his translation (with a slight assist from me) of Cherkassov’s East Siberian Hunter to inscribe. I am not sure of the price–25?– but postage (for a BIG book) is only $5. Jim Cornelius at Frontier Partisans, Dan On the Rock, and Constant Commenter (and wild canid maven) Lane Batot …
Michael’s fly; more connections…
As promised, the “Goshawk & Claret”, on its cover letter from Michael Simon back in 2000 [I had put 1990, meant to type 1999, and it was actually 2000!]The reason for the Khyber Pass falconer- with- Gos in “Teaser”, below, is that Michael spent a good bit of his youth in Afghanistan before war tore …
Wild East
Here are a few irresistible photos from Lib’s friend Jeff Foott, who we saw in Wyoming and who just returned from our old haunts in Western Mongolia. The third is just nice and speaks for itself. What I love about the other two is the way the Wild East partakes of all technologies from the …
Himalaya and Tragopans
Dr Hypercube recently mentioned the excellent book Tales of the Himalaya: Adventures of a Naturalist by the late Lawrence Swan of Darjeeling and California. I would have loved to know Swan, who climbed and collected all over the mountains and valleys I long to see, and may have been the last in a long line …