Abstract
THE elaborate Report of Mr. Bourne on his journey in South-Western China, which has recently been laid before Parliament, and to which we referred recently in connection with the ethnology of the non-Chinese races of this region, is of much geographical interest. Part of Mr. Bourne's journey was already traversed in the reverse direction by Mr. A. R. Colquhoun, and described by him in his well-known work, “Across Chrysê.” This observation applies to the route from Yunnan Fu, the capital of the province of that name, to Ssu-mao, and thence along the Tonquin frontier to Nanning on the West or Canton River. But Mr. Bourne traversed the region between Chung-king and Yunnan Fu, which, however, as it lies on one of the high roads across China into Burma, is not unfamiliar to Western readers, and he also crossed diagonally the province of Kweichow—one of the least known provinces in the Chinese Empire—from Nanning in Kwangsi to Chung-king in Szechuen. Here he travelled along unbeaten tracks for many weeks; but even where travellers had been before—and at best European travellers in Southern and South-Western China are extremely few and far between—his intimate knowledge of China and the Chinese, and the advantages which his official mission gave him, make his observations of exceptional value. He has also established the connection between the rivers of Northern Tonquin and the river system of Southern China. In regard to the seven route-sketches, which accompany the Report, of the different sections of the journey, Mr. Bourne explains that although the rate of travel (about 20 miles a day) precluded the idea of a running survey, it was easy to take notes of the prominent features of the country, as he walked nearly the whole way. These notes, which took the form of route-sketches, would, with an occasional position determined astronomically, have made it possible to give a much better idea of the country than the maps convey; but his record of astronomical observations, “which had cost him many a night's vigil,” and portions of his route-sketches, were lost on the occasion of some riots in Chung-king, during which his house was attacked and looted. But the route-sketches of the last part of the journey were fortunately saved, and supply materials for a better map. There is likewise a vast number of careful meteorological observations. It is to be feared that the instinctive repulsion of the natural man to Blue-books, regardless of their contents, will prevent Mr. Bourne's Report from receiving the attention which it deserves. On a moderate computation, it would furnish materials for half a dozen works of travel such as those with which the public is made acquainted every year, which have their little day and cease to be. We have to go back to the Reports of Mr. Bourne's predecessors, Messrs. Baber and Hosie, to find any record of travel in China of equal interest and value.
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Geographical Notes . Nature 38, 455 (1888). https://doi.org/10.1038/038455a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/038455a0