Book Description

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1883 edition. Excerpt: ... GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. (Originally written 1879; Recast 1883.) i. 'The River of Golden Sand' was printed during the absence of its author at Constantinople in 1879 (see p. [31]), and we had been so much in communication on the subject of his intended book that the business of seeing it through the press in his absence seemed naturally to devolve on me. On Gill's return he and my friend Mr. Murray asked me to write a preface to the book; and out of this request arose the somewhat lengthy essay which is now reproduced, with a few modifications, including some passages intended to bring it up to the date of the present republication. 2. The 'general reader, ' whose eye may be caught by the title of this work, will not, we trust, be misled by the familiar melody of Bishop Heber to suppose that the traveller will conduct him to 'Afric's sunny fountains.' The 'River of Golden Sand ' is a translation of the name KinSha-Kiang, or (in the new orthography, in which I find it hard to follow my author) Chin-Sha-Chiang (Gold-SandRiver), by which the Chinese, or at least Chinese geographers, style the great Tibetan branch of the Yang-tzii, down to its junction, at Su-chau (or Swi-Fu, as it is now called), with the Wen or Min River, descending from Ssu-Ch'uan. Of other names we shall speak a little below. It is proposed now to indicate some of the points of geographical interest in the little-known region of which the River of Golden Sand is as it were the axis--that region of Eastern Tibet which intervenes between the two great [68] GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. historic continents of India and China--and to sketch the history of explorations in this tract previous to that of Captain Gill. If in this task I sometimes use words that I...