The first meeting of the session of the China Branch of the Royal Asiatic Suciety was held in the Society's library, Museum Road, on Tuesday night (25th), Dr. Birth presiding. There was a fair attendance including several ladies, and the paper read by Mr. H. M. Becher on the Mineral Resources of Eastern Shantung proved most interesting, inasmuch as it disposed of a number of popular delusions about the reputed richness of the precious metal deposits in that region. A lange collection of tnineral specimens from Shantung was exhibited upon the table by the lecturer and attracted a goud deal of attention.
The Cuaisas in opening the proceedings said:—It is nearly six months ago that we met in this room for the last time, and although we are now long past the much dreaded hot season, this is nominally our opening session for the year. It, therefore, becomes my pleasant duty to Bid you welcome again and express my hopes that am active winter will make up for the absence of life in our Society during this exceptionally hot summer. So faras I can see now, there is every prospect of a good season, since a number of papers are either in hand or promised, which will be read and printed, or printed merely.if not well adapted for' an audience, This evening I have the good fortune to introduce to the meeting one of our non-resident members, Mr. Becher, who has travelled or resided in the interior of northern China fora num-Ver of years and who, from his experience as an expert, will be particularly well qualified to speak on the subject before us. (Hear, Hear.) It would be necessary now to read the minutes of the last meeting, but as they have already appeared in' our journal I hope I may anticipate your consent in dispensing with this formality. Before we proceed to hear Mr. Bechor's remarks on the mineral products of the Shantung Province, I have again to announce the election of Professor Wilhelm Schott ay an honorary member of our Society, since the regulations require that this should be done at two successive meotings after the election by the Council. Our new honorary member is apparently the most advanced in age on our list; he had the rare gud luck to celebrate his 85th birthday last month, and the vigour of urnd which he has enjoyed throughout his old days may be regarded as a just reward for a life such as his, full of scholary activity; let us hope that all our veteran honorary members, of whom in point of age Pere Zottoli, Dr. Legge and Sir jonas Wade appear to be the next, will follow his example (Hear, Hear). It has been the constant endeavour of the Council to stimulate literary production among the members of the Suciety in general: yet, although we cannot complain of entire want of success, participation in the actual work general. Pivake this remark with special we are supposed to do, might be more Feference to the description of work we furnish. Every one of us las his speciality, his hobby, as we may call it; and every one rides his hobby as best he can. But the humber of riders honour literary race course is much too small, and the performances are not always in accordance with the work in our Society, a certain amount of Chinese scholarship is required. This is by no means the case. A keen observer of human life and of things terrestrial generally will find ample opportunity to collect useful information without knowing a word of the language. While thanking our scholars for some of the more serious contributions towards the journal we cordially invite the ce-operation of those especially who can give us the benefit of their experi ence in botanical, zoological, or mineralogical questions; or in questions of commercial lifo, such as Chinese commercial law, ete. A step in the right direction, it appears tome, has lately been made by one of our members most competent to deal with legal matters, to collect information on one of the many doubtful points in Chinese commercial inw,—if such unwritten law, or usage unrecorded, may be s0; and we shall, hope, hear the opinions collected on the subject in various parts of Ching at one of our next meetings. A series of papers on commercial subjects would greatly enhance the value of our journal in the eyes of most of our financial contributors, and I would here repeat that our meetings and cur journal are open to all those who can amish useful information of any kind, whether theoretical or practical, Our meetings, I venture to. suggest, might have a more conversational character. Apart from the papers to be read and the Giscussions following, it will be a pleasant feature of our evenings, if members will exhibit curious objects, illustrating Chinese industries or manufactures, antiquities and curiosities of all kinds," All of us would, like to look at them if nothing el: some of us might be able to make useful remarks about them, which could perhaps be printed in our proceedings. Mr. Becher now makes a beginning in this direction by exhibiting some minerals collected in tung, and I hope that duri winter season, our other 1 stand back with old bronze vessels, po lains, native machinery commercial educts. (Applause.) The Chairman then introduced Mr. Becher to the meeting, which greeted him with applause, We give the following extracts from Mr. Becher's lecture dealing with the more important of the mineral deposits in the country he spoke of. After some introduetory remarks he said Though coal is without a question most valuable and has been up till rely almost the only mineral product of nines in Shantung it is confined to the Wester half of the province and must therefore receive less attention to-night than the minerals which I shall have to enumerate as prospective products viz. as Resources of Eastern Shantung.
For Western Shantung therefore there can be no doubt that an enormous fund of wealth lies awaiting realisation in the development of its coal fields, which its goo-graphical position will still further enhance, te say nothing of the possible production of metals on the inducement of cheap fuel and increased means of transport. Under present circumstances however Western Shantung is almost as inaccessible to the market for such bulky produce as are the vastly more extensive coal and iron resources of Shansi, and it has therefore been the confident hope—father to the half conceived belief—that coal may be found in the Eastern end of the peninsula. This however does not help to confirm the reports of coal being said to exist at Téngcho-fu, Lai-cho-fu and some other spots.
cannot affirm that the rocks which observed in these localities lead me to expect anything but the coveted black diamonds, whilst of three different specimens which were brought to me from as many localities said to be -dug out of the actual outcrops, one proved to be rotten basalt, another clay stained black with manganese, and the third (which had at least the excuse of being carbonaceous) graphitic schist, To pass now to the metalliferous mineral resources on which the real burden of my tale to-night depends. 'The best occurance of iron ore known at present is that of Chi-fu-tan, the hilly peninsula to the N.E. of Chefoo harbour known as the Blut. 'The' ore consists of black specular hematite iron re with some magnetite, disseminated in more or less degree through a bed of quartzite in which is but one of the regular strata of the mica schist, in its havin the iron instead of mica as an accidental ingredient. The greater is too poor to be of any value, but parts rich enough to be melted with profit would probably be found in_ places along the linie of strike which extends right through the Blutt and continues in the island of Tung-king-tan, on which the Chefoo light-house stands, There is plenty of poor class ore about, and as I said it is much used as building stone, being easily quarried, hard and durable, The richer ore should be found to smelt well admixture with others which might be imported together with coal from adjacent coast ports. Chefoo may some day be the site of a Sinensian Barrow in Furness, Essen or Creuzot to distribute guns and ship building naaterial north and south, and stea! rails, and other products of the coming iron age throughout the land, Next in importance to coal and iron we nay consider the gold of Shantung, though, other parts of the world where this seductively valuable metal is found, its absolute value compared to the cost of its production isa matter of doubt and specula. tion, The source of the Gold which still constitutes an item of regular income to a certain number of the owners of the sell in Shantung is ummistakeably traceable to be quartz veins, but it is still a problem solved how far these sources are in ther selves capable of exploitation. The fact that but little attention has been paid by the natives to the rock matter of the precious metal, whilst the stream deposits are regularly exhausted, goes far to show that the fernier offer no exceptional inducements and traces of ancient workings prove the rich outcrops to be only few and far Detween. From actual examination and practical tests Iam convinced that the reater number of quartz veins in the auriferous districts are but small and of very low grade. Whilst the largest and ost looking ledges are quite too poor to be treated by any but natives most economical disintegrating and self concentrating pro-esses; the richest quartz streaks are too small to pay for their discovery and de-elopement" by mining operations.—1 sorry Ihave not the data to give you statistics of the actual yearly output of gold from the desultory' stream washings of Shantung, whilst the out-turn of the single gold mine established ly still too problematical a question for definite conclusions.
Such as they are the sources of gold are undoubtedly widely distributed through the works of Exstern Shantung—as traces of the metal can be found in the beds of many fof the streams and rivers in the N.E. mountain districts.
Those places are however especially puted as the centres of early gold washing exploitation viz:-—Winghat Chi-hi'a Pingtu, whilst other sinaller towns collect little parcels of dust from the surrounding villagers, to supply the travelling buyers who make periodical visits in its quest from Chefoo and other markets. It is hoped by the present government concessionary officials to find and develope quartz nines in all of these distriets—but up to the present no lodes vf sufficient size,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.