GEOGRAPHY OF THE UPPER MEKONG. 
533 
[Copyright.] 
4. — NOTES ON THE GEOGRAPHY OF THE UPPER MEKONG. 
By H. WARRINGTON SMYTH, B.A„ L.L.B . , F.G.8., F.R.G.S. 
General Course . — For those who have not had the opportunity of 
studying the map of the Mekong as the researches of recent years 
have drawn it, I may begin by saying that the Mekong or Cambodia 
River, which debouches into the China Sea in Lower Cochin China (a 
deltaic tract of its own making), is in Western China identified with 
the Lantsan, and further north still with the Chiamdo Chu of Tibet. 
It rises as the Gergu River in about 33° 17' N. lat. and 94° 25 r 
E. long. 
From a south-easterly it gradually takes a southerly direction as 
it passes from Chinese Tibetan territory into the independent country 
below Chiamdo, through Maltha m, through Western Yunnan, and 
ultimately into the Shan and Lao States. 
In about 20° N. lat. it makes a great bend eastward to Luaug 
Prabang, whence it resumes its southerly course until the great 
easterly bend of Chieng Kan and Nongkhai, in Siamese territory, ia 
reached. 
From this, the 18th parallel, it resumes, with a wide sweep, its 
southerly course, passing down the whole length of Siam into Cam- 
bodia and Cochin China, and so to the fate of all rivers — in the ocean. 
It was loug hoped, and by the sanguine French colonists of 
Saigon affirmed, that this great length of river would enable vessels to 
work their way from the sea-coast into the heart of the Cambodian 
Peninsula, that by its aid a great trade route into Indo-China would 
be opened up, and that thereby, to use the phraseology of the day, it 
would be possible to “tap” the trade of Yunnan and South-western 
China. 
The prize, if it was to be gained by this road, would naturally go 
to the French, settled as they were upon its lower course ; and the 
French Government it was which sent away the great expedition made 
immortal by Francis Garnier’s charming book. 
Impressions . — When first, after ten weeks’ travelling, we struck 
the Mekong, in the Lao State of Chieng Kong, I remember how we 
gazed, the whole party, upon its broad surface with the inexpressible 
pleasure of men who have toiled their way across a trackless wilder- 
ness and come suddenly on a broad road : though they cannot see 
whither it goes or where it comes from, they feel they are linked with 
their fellow-men again ; their eyes travel along it to the horizon, and 
their thoughts to the far villages and towns to which it must surely 
somewhere lead. 
The satisfaction of feeling you are in visible connection with the 
sea is very great after a few weeks’ struggling in dense forests, where 
the Anew is limited for the most part to tree trunks. 
The first words of a Siamese at my side were, “Where does it 
come from ?” And standing on the high bank there, watching its 
enormous brown volume glide past, it was curious to think how much 
suffering had been voluntarily undertaken by men trying to get an 
answer to that very question. 
2l 
