East of the sun and west of the moon

"East of the Sun and West of the Moon" by Theodore Roosevelt and Kermit Roosevelt is a travel and expedition narrative written in the early 20th century. The work chronicles the Roosevelts’ Field Museum–supported scientific and big-game journey across the Himalayas into Central Asia, blending natural history, hunting, and vivid travel reportage with portraits of local cultures and landscapes.

The opening of the book sets the stage from planning through the first formidable crossings. After an electoral setback frees time, the brothers choose Central Asia for a combined hunting–scientific expedition focused on wild sheep (including the famed ovis poli), ibex, and allied fauna, framed by a broader interest in migration of species from Asia to North America. Backed by the Field Museum and James Simpson, they secure British, Chinese, and Russian permissions, assemble rifles, cameras, a pressure cooker, books, and four cougar hounds (prompting a humorous domestic interlude), then sail via Europe to India. They rush north through the summer heat to Kashmir, hire trusted frontier veterans and shikaries, and march up the Sind Valley over the avalanche-prone Zoji La into barren Ladakh, noting Buddhist rites, prayer-wheels, and polyandry. At Leh they negotiate transport with the Aksakal and others, enjoy local dances and polo, and divide routes; over the Khardong and Sasser they battle altitude, snow, glaciers, and icy fords, bag Tibetan antelope, and take a few burrhel whose shabby coats force a key decision to postpone Pamir sheep until autumn and push first to the Tian Shan. The section closes amid hard travel down the Karakash, searching for viable crossings and fresh animals as the caravan edges toward Chinese Turkestan. (This is an automatically generated summary.)