On Wednesday afternoon the Royal Asiatic Society's Hall was lied to overflowing by the audience which had assembled to hear the lecture given by My. Chapman Andrews, Associate Curator of the New York Museum of Natural History, Dr. Stanley occupied the chair and introduced Mr. Andrews, the subject of whose lecture was "The Wilds of Yunnan," being the des—eription of an expedition made for collecting purposes by the lecturer, his wife, and Mr. Heller in 1916-17 through the province of Yunnan.
Mr, Andrews has only recently returned from another expedition in Shansi, and will be leaving tomorrow by the Empress of Japan for the United States.
At the outset of his lecture Mr. Andrews stated that the reason for sending these expeditions to China lay in its being believed that Central Asia was the place of origin of the human race, It was supposed that the very earliest peoples, who lived exclusively by hunting, had followed their quarry thence across the Behring Straits as also to the west and into Europe. It was hoped that the next expedition which would be undertaken by his society might be accomplished by aeroplane, as this means of transit would so enormously reduce the amount of tinie necessary.
The expedition which he described in his lecture travelled by way of Hongkong and Hanoi to Yunnanfu, whence they journeyed to the borderland of Tibet, afterwards turning to the south and following the Irrawaddy down through Burma to Rangoon. Upon crossing the frontier into Burma Mr. Andrews related how he had been taken prisoner by a delightful English officer.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.