Abstract
THE author of this book says in the preface that he has done his best “to withstand the temptation to generalize from limited experience, to which travellers in China seem peculiarly liable.” Yet in his last sentence he expresses the opinion that several incidents he has mentioned “will show what a credulous and cowardly race the Chinese are.” It ought surely to have occurred to him, when he set down this harsh and rather foolish judgment, that it was a striking example of the kind of generalization which he had wished to avoid. Fortunately the statement, although it seems to convey Mr. Pratt's final impression of the Chinese people, does not represent the general character of his work, in which scientific readers will find a good deal to interest them. He went to China in 1887 for the purpose of studying the natural history of the country, and remained until 1890, fixing his head-quarters at Ichang, a town on the left bank of the Yang-tze-Kiang, 1110 miles from its mouth. He crossed the frontier of Tibet, and at Tatsien-lu met Mr. Rockhill, whose excellent account of travels in Tibet we lately reviewed. Mr. Pratt worked hard in the various regions he visited, and collected many valuable specimens in several departments of natural history. He has not a very bright or attractive style, but many of his facts are themselves so interesting, and his enthusiasm as a collector is so keen and persistent, that there are few passages which his readers will desire to skip. In an appendix, Dr. Albert Günther gives a list of the species of reptiles and fishes brought by Mr. Pratt from the Upper Yang-tze-Kiang and the province Sze-chuen, with a description of the new species. There are also lists of birds and of Lepidoptera.
To the Snows of Tibet through China.
By A. E. Pratt (London: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1892.)
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To the Snows of Tibet through China. Nature 46, 150 (1892). https://doi.org/10.1038/046150a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/046150a0