34 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. "JJ 



and W. R. Zappey were there in 1908, the former interested in botany 

 and the latter in zoology. In 1913. a German traveller. Walter 

 Stotzner, made collections in various parts of Szechuen, including 

 Tatsienlu and vicinity. The above incomplete list of visitors who 

 have made this place a collecting ground will suffice to stamp the 

 region as one fairly well known to naturalists. Nevertheless, the 

 locality was all but unrepresented in the U. S. National Museum col- 

 lections, and the material sent in by Mr. Graham was received with 

 no little gratification. 



After finishing his trip to Tatsienlu, Mr. Graham contemplated a 

 visit to Moupin, the scene of some of David's early work and also a 

 type locality of note, but the presence of bandits in that district caused 

 him to look elsewhere for the moment and he decided upon Songpan 

 (or Sungpan), in the northern part of the province, reasoning that 

 a visit to this district would result in the gathering of many species 

 not common to the regions he had already explored. This trip was 

 projected at the end of the year 1923 and began to assume shape in 

 May of the year 1924, when the Smithsonian Institution with the 

 approval of Dr. W. L. Abbott, transferred to him the collecting 

 outfit of the late Charles M. Hoy. who had been operating in the 

 province of Honan. 



Songpan was first visited by an Occidental in 1877, when the late 

 Captain W. J. Gill reached it, according to Ernest H. Wilson, who 

 was there on several occasions, the first time in 1903, during his 

 botanical travels in Szechuen. Berezowski spent several months at 

 Songpan in 1894, and Stotzner collected specimens there in 1913. 

 Wilson writes that since Gill's entry into the city " several foreigners 

 have paid visits, and missionaries of Protestant denominations have 

 made abortive attempts to establish stations there." 



While Songpan was the objective of Graham's proposed journey, 

 it was not so much the actual city as the general region that attracted 

 his attention. He had heard that good collecting ground existed in 

 its vicinity, hence looked forward to it as a trip worthy of trial. 

 During the latter part of May and early June he made himself 

 familiar with the new outfit and carried out his plans and preparations 

 for the long, rough trip. The distance from Suifu to Songpan in a 

 straight line is probably not much over 240 miles, but by the route 

 travelled would be nearer 400 miles, partly by water, but chiefly by 

 land, and to keep the cost of the trip within his original estimates, 

 ]\Ir. Graham planned to walk over practically all of the overland part 

 of his journey. 



