Abstract
IN the spring of 1932 a joint botanical and zoological expedition was sent to eastern Yunnan by the Fan Memorial Institute of Biology, Peiping, starting from western Szechuan and exploring the bordering regions of Szechuan, Kweichow and Yunnan. The party expects to spend the winter in Yunnanfu. The botanical staff will endeavour to explore regions formerly not thoroughly worked over and collect also specimens in the type localities. Besides collecting flowering plants, special attention will be devoted to mosses, liverworts, ferns and other cryptogams. The zoological staff will collect birds, fishes, other lower vertebrates and land shells. News has been received that the party succeeded in penetrating the forbidden territories of Ta-Liang-Shan Lolos, where probably no white man has ever entered before. These Lolos are very war-like tribes. They frequently kidnap Chinese and make them slaves. By a curious chance the present powerful chieftainess is the sister of the military governor of Yunnan, and hence much more enlightened in her view toward the purpose of scientific expeditions. The party was welcomed as honourable guests by the chieftainess. Oxen and pigs were slaughtered in their honour, and an elder of the tribe has been handed over to the district magistrate as the pledge of their safety. As two years ago the lamentable death of the eminent young Chinese palaeontologist, Ya-Tseng Chao, at the hands of bandits had cost the district magistrate of Chao Tung Hsien permanent dismissal from office, such precaution is carefully taken by his successor. The party plans to explore the south-eastern part of Yunnan next year.
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Scientific Expedition to Yunnan. Nature 130, 877 (1932). https://doi.org/10.1038/130877c0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/130877c0