406 THE PRESENT STANDPOINT OF GEOGRAPHY. 



04'^ 10'. But from that point down to its entrance into tbe Assam Val 

 ley, untler tbe name of the Dihong- Kiver, it is wholly unknown. So 

 also is the country eastward up to the meridian of 97° — a region which 

 is probably the basin of the tributaries of the Dibong River, which 

 flows into the Lohit-Brahniaputra a few miles above the point where 

 the latter river joins the Dihoug or Tsanpo. 



The great rivers of central and eastern Tibet — the Giama-Nu Chu, 

 the Lantsan, and the Di Chu — are fairly well known in parts; but there 

 are considerable portions of the first river, moie particularly, whicli 

 need further exploration. There is considerable uncertainty whether, 

 below where there is a ferry on the road from Daynl to Kima, the 

 Giama Nu-Chu flows southward as the source of the Salwin, or south- 

 westward and is the principal source of the Irawadi. This is a geo 

 graphical i3roblem of great interest, and offers a splendid oppoi- 

 tunity for ambitious young explorers to win their spurs. This whole 

 region of complicated mountain and river systems, whicli still conceals 

 the sources of the great Burmese streams, urgently calls for bold and 

 hardy explorers to disentangle it. It is the borderland of several 

 races, mostly broken up into minute tribal divisions, which present the 

 same interest to the anthropologist as their country does to the geogra- 

 pher. 



In Burma itself much information is still needed to complete our 

 knowledge of its geography; but this desideratum is being system- 

 atically attended to by the Indian survey department. In Siam 'Slv. 

 McCarthy has recently constructed a map, and the trade routes between 

 Chieng Mai and the Upper Mekong liave been traversed by Holt Ilal- 

 lett, Carl Boch, Archer, and others. But the region lying to the south, 

 between the Menam Valley and the lower Mekong, is almost unknown 

 to Englishmen. A thorough acquaintance with the country on tlie 

 western side of the Mekong is very desirable: such as the cis-^Nrckong 

 parts of Luang Prabong and of Nan, and the parts intended to be 

 opened up by the projected railway from Bangkok to Korat. I may 

 here mention that a valuable communication has just been received 

 from Mr. H. Warington Smyth, describing his voyage up the Menam 

 and his journeys in the mountainous country to the west of the JNIekong. 

 Our young- correspondent is a son of our former colleague, the late Sir 

 Warington Smyth, and a grandson of our President Admiral Smyth, 

 to whom the society owes so much, and was one of our seven founders. 

 Mr. Warington Smyth's narrative is of geographical value and r; 

 charmingly written, and it is pleasant to find that in this instance the 

 geograi)hical mantle of my distinguished predecessor has so worthily 

 descended on his grandson. In the Malay Peninsula there is also 

 much to be done; and Mr. Lake has just brought home some good sur 

 veying work of previously unexplored country in the territory of Johoi c. 

 But we have to deplore the death of iNIr. Becher, who unfortunately 

 lost his life in a river in the southern part of the Malay Peninsula just 



