358 GEOGRAPHICAL EXPLORATIONS AND DISCOVERIES IN 1867. 



Dr. Collingwood, an English botanist, made 

 in 1866 a boat -journey across the north- 

 ern end of the island of Formosa, mostly for 

 botanical purposes, but developing some in- 

 teresting facts relative to the harbors, produc- 

 tion of coal, and the character and industry of 

 the inhabitants of that portion of the island. 

 He found Tam-suy, on the northwest coast, and 

 Kelung, on the east, excellent and commodious 

 harbors, the latter having an abundance of 

 coal readily accessible. The harbor is filling up, 

 however, through the carelessness of the na- 

 tives. 



An exploring expedition was decided upon 

 by the British Government in 1867, to survey 

 the region lying between the highest navigable 

 points of the Brahmaputra, the Irrawady, the 

 Salvven, and the great Chinese river Yangtse- 

 Kiang, to determine the practicability of a 

 ready, cheap, and easy communication between 

 Central and Southwestern China and India. 

 The enterprise is one of great importance, and 

 the communication if accomplished would add 

 greatly to the amount of British commerce. 

 The Yangtze- Kiangis a large river, but it flows 

 for much of its course through a sandy coun- 

 try, and it bears so much silt in its waters that 

 its channel is constantly changing. Mr. J. 

 Minett Hockly, of the Royal Navy, harbor- 

 master at Shanghai, prepared in 1867 numerous 

 corrections of the chart of the river as far as 

 Hankow, but he states that the changes are so 

 frequent as to require constant watching. 



The appointment by the Chinese Government 

 of Hon. Anson Burlingame, our late minister to 

 that country, to be ambassador and envoy for 

 life to the Western powers, cannot fail greatly 

 to increase our facilities for commercial rela- 

 tions with the Chinese, and give us the opportu- 

 nity for a more full exploration of the interior 

 of that vast empire. Already a countryman 

 of ours, Mr. Albert S. Bickman, well and favor- 

 ably known as a geologist and zoologist, has 

 explored the upper waters of the Si-Kiang in 

 the interests of science, a section hitherto al- 

 most entirely unknown, and has given in the 

 Bulletin of the Societe cle Geographie a very 

 interesting account of the region watered by 

 this river, which he ascended for nearly 1,200 

 miles, and, crossing over to the Yangtse-Kiang 

 in the vicinity of Lake Tungting, descended 

 the Yangtse to Hankow and Shanghai. He was 

 iri this journey exposed to considerable perils, 

 both from robbers and from the Chinese of the- 

 interior, who had the usual prejudice of their 

 countrymen, who had not lived in the seaports, 

 against the " white devils." Mr. Bickman's 

 geological discoveries were important and valu- 

 able. The valley of the Si-Kiang, one of the 

 most fertile in the world, yielding two large 

 crops each year, owes its fertility mainly to the 

 annual inundations of its surface. 



In Cochin China, or Cambodia, M. de Legree, 

 a French naval officer, ascended, by order of the 

 French Government, in the winter of 1867, the 

 Me-Kong, the largest river of the country, and 



explored the region about its upper waters and 

 their tributaries. He found here three distinct 

 nations: the Siamese, who had in the early part 

 of this century made inroads into this country, 

 and taken possession of that portion of it lying- 

 near the bank of the Me-Kong; the Laotians, 

 or people of Laos, who, if not the original in- 

 habitants of the country, have occupied it for 

 many centuries ; and a savage tribe analogous 

 to the Hill Shyens or Shans of Burmah. The 

 Laotians and Siamese are intelligent and at least 

 semi-civilized. The population, in consequence 

 of frequent desolating wars, is scattered and 

 poor. 



The Peninsula of Corea has been perhaps 

 the least known of any of the countries of the 

 Orient bordering on the sea. Its people were 

 not unfriendly, except when awed by their 

 mandarins, but the government, a rigid and 

 cruel despotism, had pursued the policy of isola- 

 tion and non-intervention to a greater extent 

 even than that of Japan ; and the attempts of 

 Russian, French, English, or American naviga- 

 tors to penetrate into the country had been 

 met by the murder of their crews where they 

 were weak, or by the most rigid non-inter- 

 course where their armament was too strong to 

 be destroyed. The Russians had surveyed the 

 coasts, and a French admiral had succeeded in 

 1856 in ascending an arm of the sea for some 

 distance, but without making any considerable 

 discoveries. But it was left for another French 

 naval officer, Rear-Admiral Roze, to penetrate 

 in 1866 to their capital with his armed vessels, 

 to hold considerable though at first reluctant 

 intercourse with the inhabitants, and to obtain 

 specimens of their money, their arms, and their 

 military equipments. He also succeeded in 

 making a careful survey of the estuary and 

 river of Seoul or Hang Kyang, on which their 

 capital, whose name seems to be in doubt, is 

 situated. This river he ascended with a steam 

 corvette and two small steam gunboats. He 

 found it fortified along nearly its whole course, 

 the fortifications at some points being very 

 massive, and armed like those of China with 

 cannon and gingals of antiquated pattern. The 

 country appeared to be fertile and the popula- 

 tion large. Admiral Roze thinks that the cap- 

 ital is known to the inhabitants by the names 

 Hang-Yang-Tching and King-Sse. Its popu- 

 lation he estimates within the walled town at 

 from 80,000 to 100,000 souls, besides a consid- 

 erable number in the suburbs. The wall en- 

 closes a circular space of from 12 to 15 square 

 kilometres, and is from 20 to 23 feet in height, 

 and six or seven feet in thickness, with several 

 strong towers or bastions. It is situated about 

 four miles from the river. The palaces of the 

 king and princes are well built, but the re- 

 mainder of the city is mostly made up of small 

 and wretched cottages. 



AFRICA. On this continent, we must, for 

 want of space, pass over the projected or not 

 yet fully perfected explorations of M. Saint 

 across the continent from Khartum on the 



