456 ANNUAL REPOKT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 
In 1886 three noted travelers, James, Younghusband, and Fulford, 
made their historic journey through Shenking (now known as 
Fengtien) and Kirin, to the sacred peak, Lao Pei Shan (Peiktusan), 
of the Chang Pei Shan range, and northward to the Sungari Kiver 
and into Heilungkiang Province. The record of their journey was 
perpetuated by James in his standard work "The Long White 
Mountain." 
Later still Sir Alexander Hosie made his journeys through the 
country and along the Amur, and he too has ably contributed to our 
knowledge of the country in his book " Manchurin , Its People, Ee- 
sources, and Recent History." In addition to the records of these 
travelers and explorers there is a considerable amount of literature 
in Russian and Japanese, which, alas, is sealed to most Britishers 
and sadly curtails our general knowledge of the country. It is to be 
hoped that these records of good work done will some day appear in 
the English language, for it is hardly likely that either Russian or 
Japanese will ever become part of the curricula of our British schools 
and colleges. 
While travelers and men of science have thus been busy, the 
representatives of the commercial world have not been idle, for the 
barriers set up have been broken down and trade relations established 
so that the southern and western parts of the country have become 
fairly well known to the outside world. 
In the last few years, with increased facilities for travel, and with 
the passing of the old suspicions against outsiders, scientific men as 
well as traders and missionaries have penetrated the country to a 
considerably greater extent than was formerly possible. Even so, 
there still remain large tracts of unex|3lored country, while there is 
still much to be learned regarding its topography, fauna, flora, 
geology and mineral and economic resources ; and it is with my own 
small share in the work of exploring these last stretches of unknown 
territory that I propose to deal to-night. 
In preparing this paper it has been difficult to determine just 
what line to take; for, though in the course of the past 12 years I 
have done a certain amount of geographical exploration, notably in 
Shansi, Shensi, North Chihli, and Inner Mongolia, as a naturalist I 
have been concerned primarily with the fauna and to a lesser extent 
the flora and geology rather than with the geography of these 
districts. . 
Nevertheless, it is not easy for even the most casual traveler to pass 
through a country without gleaning some idea of its geography, 
topography, people, and products, and, as I hope I may claim to be 
something more than a casual traveler, I feel that, as one of the 
most recent scientific travelers in Manchuria, there may be some- 
