234 



NATURE 



[October 20, 192 1 



Travel in North-west China. 



Travels of a Consular Officer in North-west China. 

 By Eric Teichman. Pp. xiv + 2ig4-58 plates. 

 (Cambridge: At the University Press, 1921.) 

 25.?. net. 



SHENSI and Kansu, in the remote north- 

 western corner of China, are comparatively 

 little known, for neither province has any rail- 

 way or any town open to European trade. They 

 are so far within Asia that they suffer from an 

 arid climate and include large areas of typical 

 loess land while they are traversed by the Ch'inling 

 Mountains, the main mountain axis of Central 

 China, which rise from the lower Hoang Ho to 

 the Mongolian plateau. They range, therefore, 

 from fertile lowlands to a high tableland, where 

 the only extensive trade is in wool, with some 

 alluvial gold-mining in deposits which the 

 author's statements represent as comparatively 

 rich. 



Mr. Eric Teichman, of the British Consular 

 Service, who is well known from his explorations 

 in South-western China, made a tour of 4000 miles 

 through the two provinces in 1917 in connection 

 with the Opium Treaty. The conditions of travel 

 were unusually favourable, as he had the privileges 

 of a Chinese official, and he has used his oppor- 

 tunity to prepare two useful maps based on com- 

 pass surveys, and to collect much valuable informa- 

 tion as to the state of North-western China during 

 a critical period. The author's remark, at the 

 conclusion of the narrative of his journeys, that 

 "the reader ... is probably as tired of • reading 

 about them as the writer is of recording their 

 description," indicates that the book is not light 

 in style ; but to those interested in China it con- 

 tains much instructive information, and the 

 chapters on the missionaries and on projected 

 railways will interest a wider public. 



The author's routes crossed both provinces in 

 various directions, and extended to Chengtu, the 

 capital of Szechuan, to the south-west. He re- 

 turned by raft down the Hoang Ho. The most 

 important contributions to science are in refer- 

 ence to loess and oil. The author's conclusions 

 as to the formation of loess are unorthodox. He 

 had excellent opportunities for studying it, and 

 he rejects the theory of its formation by wind- 

 borne dust. " The longer we travelled in the loess 

 country," he says, "the more difficult it seemed 

 to credit this theory." He attributes it to floods, 

 and considers that its composition and distribu- 

 tion are in favour of an aqueous origin. The 

 absence of fresh-water shells he dismisses as of 

 no significance, since they are equally absent from 

 NO. 2712, VOL. 108] 



loess which has certainly been re-deposited in 

 water. 



The author gives a brief but interesting account 

 of the effort of the American Standard Oil Co., 

 in accordance with a wide-reaching concession 

 granted them in 191 4, to develop an oil-field 

 around Yenchang in northern Shensi. Two wells 

 had been sunk there by Japanese, and they are 

 still flowing and producing a considerable supply, 

 which is used among other purposes as flares on 

 the city walls in order to scare off brigands. The 

 Standard Oil Co., after a promising preliminary 

 report by its experts, made numerous bores, but 

 found no further oil, and abandoned the con- 

 cession in 1916. 



Mr. Teichman 's observations are most authori- 

 tative on the political condition of the country, 

 on the projected railways, for which concessions 

 have been granted to Belgian, Franco-Belgian, 

 and American syndicates, and on the opium in- 

 dustry. He traversed the country when the re- 

 crudescence of opium-growing after the revolu- 

 tion of 191 1 had been suppressed; but the preface 

 reports that since his journey, in spite of the 

 efforts of the Government, the cultivation of the 

 poppy has again become widespread in Western 

 China. 



North-western China has a large Moslem popu- 

 lation, due to two immigrations, the later of 

 which occurred five or six centuries ago. The 

 descendants of that movement are racially dis- 

 tinct, but those of the earlier colony are now 

 physically Chinese. The author speaks highly 

 of the influence of Islam, and regards the Moslem 

 as superior to the adjacent Chinese. Though they 

 are a minority of the population, they are so 

 strong and so wisely led that they are allowed 

 practically to govern themselves. Islam has in- 

 spired a native self-supporting sect, and the 

 author holds it up as an example in that respect 

 to the Christian missions. He expresses high 

 praise for the secular and educational work of the 

 Protestant missions, but of their religious work 

 and sectarian jealousies, and of the political 

 organisation of the Catholic missions, he is 

 severely critical. 



China is at present the prey to internal discord 

 and civil war, and the author speaks of large 

 areas being abandoned to sand and brigands. 

 Shensi was devastated by the secret society of 

 "White Wolves" in 1914, and has been the 

 battleground between the northern and southern 

 armies; but the author's numerous references to 

 former civil wars and rebellions, and to the exten- 

 sion of trade and production, despite the present 

 political feuds, justify the faith that the resources 



