Observers' Field Reports 103 



total cost of this expedition, including the travel to and from the field, but exclusive of the 

 observer's salary, was $642, or an average of $64 per station. 



Apparently no local disturbances of anj' magnitude were encountered. Considerable 

 irregularity was found in the behavior of the dip needles and the difficulty of securing 

 accurate observations of dip was increased by the failure of the level bubble due to cracking 

 of the tube, which, however, was replaced by a new tube on December 2 through the cour- 

 tesy of the Zikawei Observatory. 



The missionaries met with, especially those at Weihsien, Tsining, Tsingkiangpu, and 

 Nanchang, besides extending personal courtesies, gave very opportune assistance in securing 

 the necessarj' means of transport, a very troublesome matter in a country like China, so 

 variable in its local conditions as to travel and with such a variety of dialects. 



expedition VI. northward through central china, from the valley of the pearl 



RIVER TO THE VALLEY OF THE YANGTSE, JULY TO SEPTEMBER 1911. 



The month of September 1910 was spent in Washington comparing theodolite-mag- 

 netometer C. I. W. No. 12 and dip circle No. 206 with the adopted standards of the Depart- 

 ment. The outward voyage to China was made under the joint auspices of the Department 

 and of the Canton Christian College in the fall of that same year, Canton being reached on 

 December 13. Here the instruments referred to, shipped me from Washington, were 

 received on December 26; these with pocket chronometer Kittel No. 254, Hamilton watch 

 No. 55, and other field accessories, constituted my equipment throughout both this expedi- 

 tion and the next. In March, 9 days were devoted to comparing dip circle No. 206 with 

 the standard of the Hongkong Observatory, and in June, 6 days were devoted to a compari- 

 son of theodolite-magnetometer C. I. W. No. 12 with the Hongkong Observatory's standard, 

 Elliott No. 55, and to preparations for the proposed expedition. These Hongkong instru- 

 ments were the same ones used by me in the Hainan Survey of 1906 (Expedition I). 



The present expedition from the valley of the Pearl River, on which Canton is situated, 

 northward through Kwangtung and Kiangsi provinces to the valley of the Yangtse, was 

 undertaken in accordance with instructions dated November 14, 1910. I was accompanied 

 throughout by Mr. Y. K. Ngan, a student at the Canton Christian College, as recorder 

 and assistant observer, he taking the place of Mr. Yue, who had died in April 1911. After 

 devoting the first half of July to exhaustive comparisons of magnetometer C. I. W. No. 12 

 and dip circle No. 206 with the standards at the Hongkong Observatory, we left Hongkong 

 on July 21 bj' river steamer and at Canton took a train on that section of the Canton to 

 Hankow Railway which was already in operation. From the railhead, which was about 

 60 miles up the North River, we went by launch to Shiuchow and thence by houseboat 

 continued the ascent of the North River to Namyung, and from there proceeded on foot to 

 cross the Meiling Pass to Kanchow, at the head of na\'igation on the Kan River. This 

 river was descended in its northerly course through Kiangsi to the capital, Nanchang, 

 whence by launch we traversed the Poyang Lake and ascended the Jochow River to Wong- 

 kong, proceeding thence, also by launch, to Kiukiang, on the Yangtse, from which a side 

 trip was made on foot to Kuling, a summer resort some 4,000 feet high in the Lu Mountains 

 of the Yangtse. 



The actual traveling-time required for this overland trip from Canton to Kiukiang was 

 19 days, not counting stops at the 8 stations occupied en route. Leaving Kiukiang on 

 August 30, we descended the Yangtse to Nanking, occupying 3 intermediate stations. From 

 Nanking a side trip was made northward into Anhwei Province to Hwaiyiian by rail and 

 horseback. We then proceeded by rail to Shanghai, stopping at Soochow and Lukiapang, 

 to which the magnetic department of the Zikawei Observatory has been removed. Here 

 comparisons were made with the observatory standards on September 12 to 15. We then 

 took ship at Shanghai for Hongkong and arrived at Canton on September 22, where the rest 



