Unlocking Secrets of the Unknown [antikvár]

A imerica's Wild West was as tame as a tearoom compared with the Chinese west of Joseph Rock's day. That, at least, was the impression the Austrian-born botanist and explorer RICHARD H, STEWART (PRECEDING PAGES); JOSEPH F, ROCK (BOTH) Joseph Rock depended upon Mull's king for safe passage through some of China's remotest areas in the 1920s. Preceding Pages: Heavy loads and deep mud slow the going for Matthew and Marion Stirling en route to Tres Zapotes and the Olmec heartland. gave readers of National Geographic. "I was quartered in the center of the village in a miserable old temple full of coffins," began a typical account in 1925, when "I was informed that several hundred bandits were surrounding the village and that capture was inevitable." Rock readied his .45s, motivated his men with silver coins, and, in his usual fastidious fashion, readied a supply of warm underwear, a towel, condensed milk, and chocolate for the harrowing night ahead. Unaccountably, the bandits vanished before daybreak without firing a shot. But during two expeditions for the Society, danger never left the bullet-dodging scientist for long in the strife-torn border- 10