564 BAILEY WILLIS 



Within three weeks of his arrival in Peking von Richthofen was 

 prepared to undertake a still greater journey than the last, into the 

 far southwestern provinces of China, but the massacre of Tientsin 

 checked his plans, and, receiving news of the war between France 

 and Germany, he was again about to return home. He realized, 

 however, that he must arrive too late to be of material service to his 

 country, and finally decided on a journey in Japan, where he became 

 intensely interested in the varied features of that delightful little 

 country. He says: 



I parted from it with regret, and yet I returned with joy to my work in China. 

 For only after I had realized the smallness of the features of that land [Japan] 

 did I become aware of the greatness with which every problem is presented in 

 China. China lacks all of those charms which delight the traveler in Japan. 

 One's mood becomes earnest, the conditions of life are unpleasant, but one's view 

 is widened, and gigantic problems rise before us, of equal importance for the 

 past, the present, and the future. 



In this expression we have a suggestion of the spirit of the man, who 

 had early set himself a task beyond the strength of most men, and 

 who rejoiced as he realized its immensity. 



His sixth journey in China was undertaken to fill out the months 

 until the climatic conditions should be favorable for the trip to the far 

 western provinces, and was an excursion which occupied some weeks 

 in midsummer, 1871. Late in October he left Peking for his great- 

 est and last journey through northern China, Mongolia, and central 

 China, to the heart of Ssi-ch'uan. His intention of proceeding to 

 Thibet was there thwarted, and, being near the end of his ready 

 money and remote from any point at which he could replenish his 

 purse, he was obliged to return, via the Yang-tzi River, along the 

 route followed a score of years earlier by Abbe Hue. 



In December, 1872, after an absence of twelve years, von Richt- 

 hofen returned to Germany. In 1873 he was elected president of 

 the Geographical Society of Berlin, an office which he also held from 

 1903 to the time of his death. During the years 1879-83 he was 

 professor of geology at the University of Bonn. From 1883 to 1886 

 he was professor of geology and physical geography at the University 

 of Leipzig, and in 1886 became professor at the University of Berlin. 

 He was director of the Geographical Anstalt, and of the Museum fur 



