EXPLORATIONS OF THE REV. DAVID C. GRAHAM 

 IN SZECHUAN, CHINA 



By HERBERT FRIEDMANN, 



Curator, Division of Birds, U. S. National Museum 



The Rev. David C. Graham has continued his missionary work in 

 the province of Szechuan, western China, during the past year, and 

 as usual has utilized his spare time in collecting for the Smithsonian 

 Institution. Although no outstanding trip was made during the year, 

 much material of value was gathered at or near Graham's station 

 at Suifu, all of which supplements previous collections from that area. 

 During the year something over 62,000 specimens were received by 

 the National Museum. Dr. Graham has also made plans and already 

 taken care of the advance details for two trips of importance which 

 he hopes to be able to realize next year — one to eastern Tibet, and 

 the other to Tatsienlu. 



Just as last year the excessive rains made the journey to Moupin 

 unusually arduous, so in the beginning of this year a prolonged gen- 

 eral drought made collecting rather disappointing for a while at Suifu, 

 and it was not until later in the year that rains began to fall and condi- 

 tions were much improved. The drought caused a general scarcity of 

 insects and other forms, and this scarcity considerably increased the 

 effort involved in making collections. 



As in previous years, the hordes of bandits and robbers have been 

 the greatest obstacles to travel and collecting. Thus, Graham writes 

 in his diary on August 24, ". . . . we took a boat from Suifu to San 

 Kuang, crossed overland at San Kuang, and went sixty li up the San 

 Kuang River to Yo Keo. We could have gone farther, but there is 

 a place between Yo Keo and Sa Ho where robbers constantly 

 appear " 



That robbers are not the only source of annoyance is evidenced by 

 the following entry on September 4. ' When we were coming down 

 the high mountain towards Tsanglinshien, I noticed that there was 

 no one else on that road either going or coming. After reaching 

 this city I learned that both leopards and robbers are fierce at the 

 top of the high mountain between here and Tseo-Jia-Geo. Leopards 

 were fiercer and more common over a wide territory than they have 

 been known to be before, and probably hundreds are killed every year 



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