April 4, 1901 j 



NATURE 



543 



Extravagant, however, as Prof. Ayrton's suggestion 

 may have seemed, it appears from Mr. Duddell's reply 

 to the discussion on his paper (just published in the 

 Journal of the Institution of Electrical Engineers) that 

 it is more than justified by the truth. During the time 

 that Mr. Duddell was experimenting on the musical 

 arc at the Central Technical College, Mr. Bradfield 

 noticed that an arc with which he was experimenting in 

 Sir W. de W. Abney's laboratory started playing tunes. 

 About the same time also Sir Norman Lockyer noticed 

 that the arc in his laboratory was behaving in an erratic 

 manner, though he did not detect any definite tune. At 

 the time neither Mr. Bradfield nor Sir Norman Lockyer 

 were able to account for this strange behaviour, but on 

 the publication of Mr. Duddell's paper the explanation 

 became evident. All the arcs were being supplied fronj 

 the street mains and the disturbances were due to the 

 shunt circuit with which Mr. Duddell was working at the 

 Central Technical College. The arcs at Sir W. Abney's 

 and Sir Norman Lockyer's laboratories were thus able to 

 detect and repeat the tunes Mr. Duddell was playing on 

 his arc, although they were in no way adjusted to make 

 them specially sensitive, and were only connected to Mr. 

 Duddell's arc by virtue of being on the same distributing 

 network of supply mains. Sir. W. Abney's laboratory i^ 

 on the opposite side of the road to the Central Technical 

 College and at a distance of about 400 yards in a straight 

 line, and at a much greater distance if measured along 

 the street mains. Sir Norman Lockyer's laboratory is at 

 about the same distance, on the same side of the road as 

 the College. 



If such remarkable results as these can be obtained 

 without any design or arrangements of the circuit, who 

 shall say what cannot be effected by a proper study 

 of the best conditions and attention to the necessary 

 details ? Those who heard the music discoursed by the 

 arcs at the Institution of Electrical Engineers will agree 

 that some improvement is necessary before the arc can 

 compete as a musical instrument with the violin or grand 

 organ. But it is sufficiently demonstrated, we think, that 

 Prof. Ayrton's prophecy is by no means excessive, and 

 the time is perhaps not far distant when every central 

 station will have its resident musician to play patriotic 

 airs on the street arcs at the Coronation of the King and 

 like occasions, and we shall be able to realise something 

 of the grandeur of "the morning stars singing together." 



LITTLE'S EXPEDITION TO OMI AND THE 

 TIBETAN BORDERS 



A HOLIDAY trip from Central China (Chung-King), 

 "^~*- through the red sandstone basin of western Sze 

 Chuan to the granite frontiers of Tibet, and back again 

 by the traditional water-highway of the Yangtse, is not 

 an experience which falls within the reach of every 

 mercantile explorer in the East ; and it derives additional 

 interest iii Mr. Little's case from the fact that he was 

 accompanied by his wife. The story of the expedition 

 is told in the form of a diary, a form in which it is almost 

 inipossible to avoid a certain amount of monotonous 

 reiteration of incident in the daily record of progress, 

 and which is, perhaps, a little too official in its method 

 for an ordinary traveller's tale ; but it is interesting all 

 through, and the deductions which Mr. Little draws from 

 his observations afford valuable food for reflection to 

 those who look to the opening up of China to western 

 methods of economic development. From Chung King 

 to Kia ting, the town which lies at the foot of the classical 

 Omi (the Fusilama of western China), Mr. Little and his 

 wife adopted the Chinese traditional mode of transport, 

 which consists of a sedan chair carried on the shoulders 



,.,^ 't't^°""' ^'"' ^""^ ^^y°"*^-" ByA. J. Little. Pp. xiv-l-272. (London: 

 W. Heinemann, 1901.} 



NO. 1640, VOL. d'^'l 



of coolies ; and it is a method which, in the present stage 

 of Chinese social advancement, secures for a traveller as 

 much respect and attention as a coach-and-four would in. 

 England. It at once lifts him morally and physically 

 above the steaming crowds of humanity which, in a 

 region which is free from the depleting processes of 

 famine, swarm together in one great pitiless struggle for 

 existence. The whole basin of the Yangtse to the foot 

 of the western mountains presents the same aspect of 

 overcrowded population. Every acre of available soil is 

 cultivated, every yard of productive land is occupied. 

 There is no room to pitch even the smallest of tents, and 

 travellers have perforce to put up with the accommodation 

 afforded by the indigenous hotel. It is the varied nature of 

 the sort of entertainment which is found at these Chinese 

 inns, with the everlasting accompaniment of personal 

 unrestrained curiosity on the part of a people who look 

 on all foreign devils (especially a feminine devil) as fair 

 game for their inquisitiveness, which forms the leading 

 feature in Mr. Little's account of his outward journey.. 

 The trip was made in 1897, and it is worthy of remark 

 {apropos of more recent events in China) that even then 

 Mr. Little was able to discern a very considerable change 

 for the worse in the attitude of the people towards 

 strangers ; and this change had taken place during the 

 previous ten years. Fifteen years before Mr. Little's 

 journey that delightful writer and traveller, Baber, had 

 visited western Sze Chuan and Mount Omi, and his account 

 of his travels certainly tends to confirm Mr. Little's view 

 that a growing antipathy to foreign incursions was 

 gradually accumulating which would eventually tend to 

 mischievous results. Our travellers were occasionally 

 treated to something worse than the derisive jeers of the 

 townspeople. " Clods of earth and cabbage-stalks " now 

 and then followed the maledictions of the crowd. And 

 yet there was much good-natured hospitality and courtesy 

 frequently shown both by priests and people. How far 

 the interference of missionaries with the old traditions of 

 a form of Buddhism which seems to be of a far higher 

 and purer type in western China than anything in Tibet, 

 may have influenced the minds of the people is open to 

 question. Mr. Little is evidently doubtful on the point. 

 With every desire to give missionaries credit for their 

 devoted spirit of enterprise, he seems to think that their 

 efforts in the work of regeneration have not always been 

 wisely directed. 



Of the wonderful beauty of Mount Omi scenery, its 

 temples and groves, its priests, its pilgrims and its preci- 

 pices (from the summit of one of which the crowning 

 " glory of Buddha" is to be seen), Mr. Little has much to 

 say, and he says it well. When the Chinese introduce 

 railways more freely into their country, along with that 

 " western knowledge and machinery " which is to give 

 to them the " command of the industrial world," Omi 

 (beloved of Baber and photographed by Mrs. Little) will 

 be as much an object of western pilgrimage as of 

 eastern. 



Mr. Little makes the height of Omi to be 10,500 feet 

 above sea, and Sai King Shan (a mountain which he 

 subsequently visited), 11,100. This exactly reverses the 

 altitudes given by Baber, who makes Omi 11,100 feet — 

 the height which is preserved in Mr. Little's map. 

 Hypsometrical determinations are proverbially unsatis- 

 factory, especially when the observations are made under 

 the influence of very varied " weather " conditions. 

 Possibly, also, Mr. Little's results may be affected by the 

 fact that he "boiled his thermometer" (he says he did so, 

 repeatedly) instead of registering the temperature of the 

 steam. 



The Littles did not penetrate far into Tibet. Indeed,, 

 it depends on whether Ta chien lu (Dar chen do ; both, 

 names seem to be correct) is to be regarded as the 

 frontier of Tibet, or whether the boundary is politically 

 (as it is geographically) to be found in the Tung river. 



