﻿NO. 5 SMITHSONIAN EXPLORATIONS, I922 43 



Museum. While it is too soon for any full report on the explorations 

 in which Mr. Sowerby is engaged, the following passages from a 

 letter dated December i, 1921, give some idea of the conditions imder 

 which the work is being done. 



In the Interior of Fukien Province, 



S. E. China, December i, 192 1. 



Here I am over 200 miles from the coast up a tributary of the 

 Min River, right at the back of beyond of the province, as you might 

 say. I couldn't sit idle in Shanghai, so I decided to have a shot 

 at this province. I took steamer to Foochow and was very fortunate 

 in meeting a young American named Carroll, engaged in the lumber 

 business, who was on his way to the very spot I had decided to visit, 

 and he offered me the hospitality of his boat — an adapted river-boat, 

 shallow draft, but comfortable — and his pleasant company. Natur- 

 ally I accepted, and so here I am. We went away up a side stream, 

 too small for boat traffic — to a spot in the back liills — or mountains, 

 about 5.000 feet — where his company is opening up a forest, and 

 there we camped a week, scouring the whole neighborhood, and 

 having a few good hard tries for serows. Though we failed to get 

 anything big, I did pretty well with small mammals. Next we came 

 back to the main stream, where I am camped, while he has gone on 

 up stream to transact some business. He expects to return here 

 to-morrow or the next day, when we will go down stream to a place 

 where a couple of tigers have been killing a lot of people, and see 

 if we can't get a shot at them. Then on back to Foochow, whence I 

 shall return to Shanghai for Christmas. After that I have fixed up 

 with a party to go up the Yangtze as far as Wuhu, then inland to a 

 place called Ning-kuo-fu, taking in some forested country on the 

 way in the hopes of getting some Ccrvus kopschii, across the divide 

 into Chekiang Province and down some stream to Hangchow. The 

 other fellows are out for sport pure and simple, but I shall have 

 time to do some collecting. So you see I am panning out pretty well. 

 I shall come back to this province again as soon as possible, as it 

 is simply full of stuff. The only trouble is that the cover is so dense 

 that trapping and shooting are extremely difficult. I already have 

 a collection of 94 mammals — including 14 species — some interesting 

 birds, fish, frogs, etc. The rats are a puzzle. As far as I can make 

 out I have five different species of Epimys. 



I have met Caldwell, the man who saw the famous " Blue tiger," 

 and he tells me it was of such a color that he thought it was a chinaman 

 in his blue coat in the brush. But he had a good enough view of the 



