7^0 The SniitJisonian Institution 



driven from their pits by the Aincs. This report is of great 

 value and interest, and was published in 1890 by the Smith- 

 sonian Institution. 



The maps of fifty years ago show the general course of the 

 rivers of China (with several ranges of mountains), having 

 been largely constructed from the reports of Marco Polo, 

 who traveled through China six hundred years ago, for little 

 had been added to the knowledge of the interior of China 

 since his time. During the past fifty years intercouse with 

 China has been greatly increased, barriers have been thrown 

 down, the country has been partially opened to missionaries 

 and travelers, who have crossed and recrossed its territory, 

 so that we have now a oreneral knowledofe of the whole of the 

 Chinese Empire. Raphael Pumpelly was one of the first 

 Americans who traveled extensively through China, Mon- 

 golia, and Japan between 1862 and 1865, and his researches 

 were published by the Smithsonian Institution. He was the 

 first to describe the great Loess formation of the Hoang-Ho, 

 in northeastern China, which has been the chief source of its 

 agricultural wealth and the means of subsistence of its vast 

 population, and to ascertain the location of the vast coal beds 

 and fields of iron and copper. Various facts have been ascer- 

 tained in regard to the Loess formation, of interest to us, as 

 the same formation has been found in Iowa and some other 

 of the central States. These countries were again explored 

 in 1 88 1 by Pierre L. Jouy, who also visited Korea, and sub- 

 sequently by John B. Bernadou, each of whom made large 

 collections of the fauna of those countries and of the mortuary 

 pottery of Korea. It must not be forgotten that the latter 

 are not only valuable as interesting specimens of art, but 

 also as giving us a very accurate knowledge of the resources 

 of the country and the character and civilization of its inhab- 

 itants. Later William W. Rockhill, for several years con- 



