Last week when he left Tachienlu he carried with him between three and four thousand specimens, many of them new {0 science and some them quite rare, Very generously Dr. Smith Is also making a collec tion for the Nanking Herbarium and with this assistance Chinese Botany should rise to some position in the botanical world. Already Nanking thas made quite a collection of Chinese plants and the energetic organtzers of that institution are prepared to. render an} amistanee in deter mining flowers and plants, The Potanleal department of Nanking University has also a large assort~ ment of ower' and vegetable seeds which they sell quite cheaply: prac-Yically all' these are indigenous and when planted in Chinese soil will grow and flourish with the noon-day fun, Mr. Liu, Mrs. Young, and Dr. Smith have all lived on the frontier during the present year and all have made" collections of Tibeto-Chinese plants.
Dr. Smith is no stranger to the flora of China. Some years ago he and his wife collected in the province of Shansi and Dr. Smith himself hag travelled in different parts fof the Republic. He hopes ly will be possible to visit Omel, the botanist's wonderland, on his way down Fiver, but at-precent the doctor is very much pressed for time, as he due back in Upsslg some time in February. Unfortunately he has been working against time and very often this hard working professor thas looked longingly at the surrounding Tibetan mountains and wished his home university would extend his year's leave. But Dr. Smith has apparently to get back to work, plant collecting evidently "not being considered Modern" Botany. The emphasis st present seems to be on Plant Physiology and much of modern botany is confined to the class room. Tt was most interesting to meet botanist Ike Dr. Smith and hear something about the gardens in Upsala, of which Linnaeus did much to build up. We were als> interested to hear how the Swedish doctor came by the good old Englisn name of Smith and how he got Harry attached to it, The Craze for Gold The Chinese Tibetan border is. enjoying a rollicking gold_ rush. Gold was discovered at Chiang. chuin-chiao some days beyond Daw and during the past few months about one thousand Chinese diggers fare now digging gold. In the short space of some weeks a small townip has come into being and we hear that already there are tea-shops and all the paraphernalia that accompanies civilization. The Land of the Lamas is considered by many to be an Eldorado where gold is s0 plentiful that the lamas put it very thickly on their lamaseries. And one of the reasons, it is proclaimed, why the Forbidden' Land is so_ruthlessly exploited by the Strong Powers, enormous quantities of tien alluvial gold. It. shows remarkable tenacity on the part of the Tibetans and extreme temerity on the part of the exploiters that the Roof of the World still remains a Closed Land, That Tibet is fabulously rich fs a fabulous story. True there are lar quantities of alluvial gold, and spite of Buddha's Great Renunciaton, much of this precious metal has come into the hands of many of the poor incarnations, but compared with the gold fields of Australia, South Africa, and Canada, Tibet has nothing to boast of. "For some reason Rubin and Mandeville were under the impression that the immense dome st the Litang Cathedral was covered with gold. It may be that whi Mandeville tested this assertion that} the "Abbot 100K im up" the blind star.
Shacks and Shantles may be that the Land of the] Lamas was once rich in gold but since the American embargo it has! Tost much of the precious metal! present there are some thousands of in many parts of but very, Uittle gold is being discovered. However the present rush along the! north Lhasa road may yet prove to be the tong lost Bl to the frontier wealth, peace, and prosperity. According 16 reports this new gold field is the richest yet] discovered on the Tibetan trontiec and an SES, has come for mot diggers. At present there are some hundreds of men at Sobo with large numbers at Go-lo-to, Neemadrong, fand Gada, but the recent rush 's unprecedented in border history. Unfortunately many of these Chinese Gold diggers live a very precarious existence and their quarters at the gold diggings are haunts of sickness! and disease. The present "find" lies tan altitude of 12,000 feet and at this height the days are cold and the nights are colder. The diggers are! poorly clad in thin Chinese blue loth, though "many of them wear the heavy Tibetain woollen cloth. The Chinese digger's quarters are characteristic of gold digger's quarters in every part of the world: a shack. and a shanty with numerous holes: and "plenty" openings. Under these very "unpleasant and unsavoury. conditions the Chinese gold diggers are working and apparently finding much gold.
Minor in Production The history of gold digging and washing in" Eastern Tibet began twenty. Ave years ago when H. E. Chao Ri-feng introduced from the north-eastern part of Szechuan. As the gold rush at that time proved a wash out the fine, strong, hardy men from the north-east of the province remained on the border and when they failed to find the "tsai of wealth they planted the "tsai" of! vegetable, and from this latter have become rich men on the frontier. These simple, hardy fellows are now scattered all over Eastern Tibet and when mated with a strong, young 'Tibetan girl produce a very fine stock, 'These Chinese from the north feast of Szechuan with the Laoshans from Shensi form the back-bone of the border population. They are! clean, thrifty, and "industrious, and when' one line fails they immediately start another. When HE. Chao introduced these men he gave solidity and stability to his splendid work on
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.