August 1 6, 1883] 



NA TURE 



36: 



Shan States, the real goal of his journey. Here, where 

 the most interesting part of his work was to commence, 

 and when he had overcome many obstacles, he found 

 himself compelled to abandon his plan by the refusal of 

 his interpreter to proceed into these strange regions. It 

 is not difficult to understand the bitter disappointment 

 with which he turned northwards, when only a few weeks' 

 journey from Zimme', and passing almost across Yunnan 

 to Tali, he took the usual route of Gill, Margary, and 

 others through Mamvyne and Bhamo, and thence by the 

 Irrawaddy to Mandalay and British Burmah. It is to be 

 hoped, not less in the interests of geograj hy than of com- 

 merce, that Mr. Colquhoun may shortly be able to under- 

 take the journey again, aided by the great commercial 

 bodies of England ; for we are bound to say that he 

 exhibited throughout the journey many of the highest 

 and most valuable qualities that a traveller can exhibit 

 among strange peoples — patience in overcoming obstacles, 

 unfailing good temper, tact in dealing with officials and 

 with his own followers ; and at the same time energy, 

 industry, and skill in making and recording scientific 

 observations. These volumes appear to have been 

 written from day to day as the journey progressed, and 

 this accounts for much repetition, and for an absence of 

 arrangement which is none the less occasionally irri- 

 tating. But how are we to account for the presence of 

 illustrations in this important and scientific work of such 

 hackneyed subjects as " Chinese Children," " Modes of 

 Dressing the Hair," "Boats at Futshan,'' &o, such as 

 may be found in any popular volume published on China 

 during the last fifty years ? They swell the size of the 

 book, without in any degree adding to its interest or 

 value. In fact, there was ample room for judicious 

 pruning, and a single moderate-sized volume would have 

 been sufficient to contain a full record of the journey, 

 including the excellent maps, and the amusing sketches 

 of the aboriginal tribes of Southern Yunnan. But we 

 must not look our gift-horse too much in the mouth ; and 

 the faults to which we htve adverted do not prevent Mr. 

 Colquhoun 1 s journey from being one of the most valuable 

 contributions to our knowledge of the geography of China 

 and its southern border-lands that we have had since 

 Lagree's adventurous journey up the Meikongand through 

 Yunnan to the Yang-tsze about ten years ago. He appears 

 to have settled the hydrography of many of the numerous 

 rivers that flow from Yunnan through the Indo-Chinese 

 peninsula, and his accounts of the various tribes inhabit- 

 ing the southern borders of that province add much to 

 ethnological knowledge. One fact, of great importance 

 at the present time, which Mr. Colquhoun places beyond 

 doubt is that the Songkoi River, which flows through 

 Tonkin, and which the French regard as the future trade- 

 route into South-western China, can never be used for 

 that purpose with success. Its highest navigable point 

 is cut off from the province by a range of lofty mountains, 

 and when these are crossed, the district reached is a 

 barren one. The real wealth of these regions appears to 

 lie farther to the westward, about Puerh, Ssumao, and in 

 the Independent Shan States, where the traveller found a 

 busy and thriving trade. In the new journey which Mr. 

 Colquhoun is about to undertake with more funds, and 

 with other advantages which he did not possess last year, 

 we are sure he will meet with the success which unfor- 



tunate circumstances then snatched from him at the last 

 moment. 



Mr. Gilmour's volume is one of the most charming 

 books about a strange people that we have read for many 

 a day. There is much deficiency in the matter of dates, 

 but we gather that he commenced his missionary labours 

 in Mongolia about 1870, and that he is still connected 

 with the Peking mission. He lived amongst this nomad 

 people as one of themselves. He learned the language 

 in a manner that would have approved itself to the late 

 Prof. Palmer, and then he travelled over the vast tract 

 of country lying between the great wall of China on the 

 south and the Amour on the north, sometimes joining 

 caravans, sometimes alone, now staying in Mongol tents, 

 now pitching his own tent on the confines of an encamp- 

 ment, from which the people came out to visit and hear 

 him, or to get from him foreign medicines, which they 

 expected to work extraordinary cures. In addition Mr. 

 Gilmour has lived in towns such as Kalgan, on the 

 southern frontier of Mongolia, Urga and Kiachta, and 

 appears even to have once gone as far as Irkutsk. As a 

 result he knows the Mongols from the inside ; he has 

 penetrated into their superstitions, their religion and 

 habits of life, and he therefore is never compelled to 

 hammer out a little substance to cover a large space. 

 Indeed his wealth of material would in some hands have 

 easily been extended to two portly volumes. Of geogra- 

 phical information there is very little, except an account 

 of a journey across Mongolia from Kalgan to Kiachta, on 

 the Siberian frontier ; but the customs, religion, super- 

 stitions, &c, of the inhabitants of Mongolia are fully 

 described, and the volume may thus be of much value to 

 the ethnologist and student of comparative culture. It is 

 in addition written in a simple and most amusing way. 



The complaint that our books on Japan for the general 

 reader are written by " globe-trotters " and travellers who 

 have spent but a short time in the country is in a fair way 

 of being removed. Mr. Holtham's is the second volume 

 published during the past two years in which a resident 

 on his return home has given the public the benefit of his 

 experiences. Mr. Holtham was employed as an engineer 

 on the Japanese railways. For the first two years survey 

 work took him up country, but when the Japanese 

 Government found they were exceeding their funds in 

 various directions, the projected railways were abandoned 

 for the lime being, and Mr. Holtham was called in to 

 administer one or other of the two small railways then in 

 actual running order. One of these he extended slowly 

 till it reached Kioto ; the other he succeeded in relaying. 

 The nature of the experiences of an engineer surveying 

 for railways may be guessed with tolerable accuracy, but 

 Mr. Holtham tells his story in a quaint and humorous 

 fashion which, if a little strained now and again, is as a 

 rule very taking. In addition to what may be called 

 the professional section of the volume, there are also 

 records of various journeys in the interior, but none of 

 these are on unbeaten tracks ; and interspersed every- 

 where we find interesting and amusing comments on 

 what was going on under the author's eye in society and 

 politics in Japan. It may be commended especially to 

 readers who desire, from whatever motive, to know the 

 conditions under which the scientific and professional 



