[ { "id": 204238, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1961", "page_number": 6, "title": "RAS-1961", "content_text": "Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch\n\nRASHKB and author\n\nVol. 1 (1961)\n\nISSN 1991-7295\n\n3\n\nTHE NORTH CHINA BRANCH started in Shanghai in 1857 under the name of the Shanghai Literary and Scientific Society. Its first President was the Rev. E. C. Bridgman, D.D., the first American missionary in China and the founder and manager of the Chinese Repository. Its first Journal appeared in 1858 in the name of the Literary and Scientific Society, but in that year the Society became affiliated to the Royal Asiatic Society as its North China Branch. Except for a brief period between 1861, when Dr. Bridgman died, and 1864 when the Society was reanimated through the unremitting efforts of Sir Harry Parkes as President, the Society maintained for nearly 85 years—until the outbreak of the second world war in December 1941—almost an unbroken vigour and a high reputation as the principal centre of Oriental culture among the foreign and Chinese communities in Central China. It also kept up a high standard of scholarship and of cultural appeal in its Journal, which appeared unfailingly every year. After the war it continued its work until, after 1948, it was forced through political troubles to cease its activities. The last issues of the Journal had been published with the co-operation of the International Institute of China.\n\nThe Society in Shanghai was from its early days fortunate in the support of a generous public and of the British Government, which in 1868 provided it with a site at a nominal rent for its own building, completed in 1871. Later the property was conveyed to the Society in perpetuity or for so long as it was used for the Society's purpose. Thus, in 1931 the Society was able, with the aid of public subscriptions and generous municipal grants, to build in Museum Road close to the British Consulate a commodious building of its own; it contained a lecture hall named after the late Dr. Wu Lien-teh, a floor to accommodate its Oriental Library of 12,000 volumes and adjacent reading rooms, as well as space for an excellent natural history museum and for the exhibition of Chinese paintings and other works of art.\n\nIn 1941 the Society had nearly 800 members, including most of the leading Oriental scholars, explorers and travellers. Amongst the outstanding personalities who had been associated with the North China Branch a few may be mentioned—Dr. Joseph Edkins, Thomas W. Kingsmill, Dr. Emil Breitschneider, Henri Cordier (at one time the Society's Librarian), P. G. van Mollendorf, Sir Robert Hart, Sir Harry Parkes, Sir Byron Brennan, W. H. Medhurst, Sir Edmund Hornby (the first British Judge in China), Sir Rutherford Alcock, H. A. Giles, G. H. Parker, H. B. Morse, A. P. Parker, Alexander Hosie, Samuel Couling, Sir Sidney Barton and Dr. J. C. Ferguson, an American, former President of Nanking University and a man of profound learning and wisdom who, in the course of half a century, served the Society as President, Secretary and Editor of the Journal.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1961.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/vd6724704", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205263, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1967", "page_number": 25, "title": "RAS-1967", "content_text": "18\n\nPATRICIA MARSHALL\n\nThere is plenty of cover in these places for deer and civet cats. There are also a number of exotic wild birds, that would increase if left unmolested. The Sai Kung peninsula and the area above Plover Cove are also beautiful areas which it is hoped will never be used for building. It is for the people of Hong Kong to act in a responsible manner to themselves and to future generations to ensure that a little of the natural beauty and at least some of the native mammals of Hong Kong are conserved.\n\n1.\n\n2.\n\n3.\n\n4.\n\n5.\n\nREFERENCES\n\nAllen, G. M. (1938) The Mammals of China and Mongolia published by American Museum of Natural History, New York.\n\nBalfour, S. F. (1940-1941) “Hong Kong before the British”, Tien Hsia Vol. XI, No. 4 pp. 330-352 and No. 5 pp. 440-464.\n\nGrant, C. J. (1962) The Soils and Agriculture of Hong Kong. published by the Hong Kong Government Printer, pp 136-138.\n\nHerklots, G. A. C. (1951) The Hong Kong Countryside, printed by the South China Morning Post, Hong Kong.\n\nMarshall P. M. and Phillips, J. G. (1965) \"Plans for Conserving the Wild life of Hong Kong,\" \"Oryx” (Journal of the Fauna Preservation Society) Vol. VIII No. 2 pp 107-112.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1967.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/0c488p70g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205934, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1970", "page_number": 14, "title": "RAS-1970", "content_text": "the Society had a fine home of its own with a lecture hall presented by a Dr. Wu Lien-teh, a magnificent library and a museum and art gallery. It was supported by the Municipal Councils of the International Settlement and of the French Concession with liberal grants. In Hong Kong, however, no philanthropist has yet appeared to help the Society and the Government gives us only $200 a year in return for which it receives free copies of the Society's publications.\n\nOur library is increasing and now consists of about 500 books but can be much enlarged by the purchase of books and by donations. One section of the library, the rarest volumes and our exchange journals as well as a stock of our own journals, is kept in the University, while the other section is kept in the rooms of the British Council which is already hard pressed to house its own library. We are grateful to the University and the British Council for these facilities and the services of their staff but the time has come when the Society will have to appeal for funds to house our library and make it more easily available.\n\nWe have to acknowledge with gratitude the gifts of books made during the year, including contributions from the Hong Kong University and from the South China Morning Post. A most valuable gift was the presentation on behalf of the Diocesan Girls' School of the classic and rare book, Bentham's Flora Hongkongensis, published in 1861. Bentham was a member of the Society but published his great work two years after the Society's collapse. In this connection I want to add that it has been my great wish, so far not achieved, to see Bentham's book succeeded by a new and colour edition of the Flora of Hong Kong based on the 500 admirable slides from the photographs taken by Mr. F. A. Nixon. With some Government encouragement and some philanthropic help, such as was given by Jardines and Dents in 1859, such an aim could be achieved and would serve as a permanent contribution by the Royal Asiatic Society to the natural history of Hong Kong.\n\nAs you will see from the Hon. Treasurer's Report our finances are in a satisfactory position; but we cannot be complacent as we have heavy expenses to meet in printing the new issue of the Journal and in reprinting Vol. I and the printing of the record and results of the recent Symposia conducted by Professor Dwyer", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1970.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ww72j0241", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205935, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1970", "page_number": 15, "title": "RAS-1970", "content_text": "and by Professor Thrower. Again it will be seen that the modest subscription of $30 a year, for which apart from the ordinary amenities of the Society members receive a free copy of all the Society's publications, falls far short of the costs of running the Society. The gap is as usual bridged mainly by interest from investments, bank interest and the sale of journals. Our investments at the end of 1969 showed a market value of $52,855 against cost of $43,554. The origin of our investments was the anonymous gift of $10,000 by a friend in 1947 in memory of Arthur de Carl Sowerby, who was the founder and curator of the Society's museum in Shanghai and a great authority on the natural history of China. This was supplemented by a gift of $5,000 by the late Stanley Smith in aid of the Society's funds in 1965.\n\nThere have been no changes in the Council of the Society during the year except that the vacant office of Vice Chairman in place of Prof. K. E. Robinson was filled by the appointment by the Council under Rule 11 of the constitution of Mr. J. W. Hayes who has been Editor of the Journal since 1966 and whose scholarly contributions to it and his popular tours of historic Hong Kong have been so greatly appreciated. The Council is a hard working body and meets at least once a month, and its activities involve a great deal of time and labour. Every member has his particular function and role to fulfil, apart from his general contribution to the Council work.\n\nIt has been a great pleasure to work for ten years with such harmonious and hardworking colleagues, and I want to thank them for their loyalty and for the unremitting help they have given me over the last ten years. In resigning at this juncture from the Presidency I do so with great regret, but am happy in the knowledge that the future of the Society is in safe hands.\n\nIn conclusion I want to thank the British Council for its continued support and for all the services it provides for the Society. I want last but not least to pay tribute to and thank, both on my own behalf and that of the Society, Mrs. O'Hara of the British Council for her willing and ready help during those ten years which all members of the Council have good reason to appreciate. She is an indispensable repository of the infinite details connected with the secretarial work, and her ready and\n\nPage 15\n\nPage 16", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1970.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ww72j0241", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205988, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1970", "page_number": 68, "title": "RAS-1970", "content_text": "A HONG KONG BUTTERFLY Lamproptera curius (Fabricius) walkeri (Moore)\n\nCOLONEL V. R. BURKHARDT*\n\nIntroduction\n\nwith Introduction and Postscript by J. B. Pickford and J. Carey-Hughes\n\nThe following notes on the breeding of Lamproptera curius walkeri are from the records of the late Colonel V. R. Burkhardt, together with some correspondence he had with Mr. N. D. Riley of the British Museum of Natural History.\n\nColonel Burkhardt served in China and Hong Kong for many years, including two periods as Military Attaché to the British Embassy to China. He published three volumes on Chinese Creeds and Customs (H.K., South China Morning Post Ltd., 1953, 1955, 1958) and contributed a weekly article in a local newspaper on the same subjects under the pseudonym 'Pioneer'.\n\nIn addition to his interest in Sinology he was an enthusiastic and painstaking entomologist. In later years, due to storage difficulties he did not keep his set specimens, but made water colour illustrations of the many species he had caught including a large number of rarities. While these are extremely well executed and scientifically correct, there is really no substitute for the whole insect.\n\nAt the time of Colonel Burkhardt's notes on L. curius (1957) little or nothing was known of the early stages of this butterfly. His observations are recorded here without alteration.\n\nCOLONEL BURKHARDT'S NOTES\n\nThe small Papilio Lamproptera curius was first reported in Hong Kong by Commander Walker in 1892, and his name is associated with it by Moore. Kershaw describes it in his Butterflies of Hong Kong (1907) as very scarce and sporadic, appearing to become scarcer in Hong Kong of late years. He continues \"I have seen so little of this insect that I cannot do better than quote Commander Walker's account in the Transactions of the Entomological Society of London, for 1895.\"\n\n* Colonel Burkhardt's article on Hong Kong Butterflies, with coloured illustrations, appeared at pp. 97-104 of the 1964 Journal, Ed.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1970.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ww72j0241", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208211, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1977", "page_number": 250, "title": "RAS-1977", "content_text": "234\n\nNOTES AND QUERIES\n\nmountains about Kuatun and Sanchiang.... It is secretive, hiding by day in the beds of the streams and apparently prowling by night.\" The only other record of the distribution of this species of which I am aware lists it for both Fukien and Chekiang (Anon., 1977).\n\nDoubtless the specimen found in a catchment channel near Shek Kong had been carried down with water collected from a stream at a higher altitude, most likely from Tai Mo Shan.\n\nREFERENCES\n\nAnonymous (Compiled by the Amphibians and Reptiles Research Department of The Biological Research Institute of Szechwan Province)\n\n1977 Systematic Keys to China's Reptiles. (In Chinese) Press, Peking.\n\nBoulenger, G. A.\n\n1912 A Vertebrate Fauna of the Malay Peninsula. Reptilia and Batrachia. Taylor and Francis, London.\n\nPope, C. H.\n\n1935 The Reptiles of China. Natural History of Central Asia, Vol. 10. The American Museum of Natural History, New York.\n\nSmith, M. A.\n\n1935 Sauria. Reptilia and Amphibia, Vol. 2. The Fauna of British India, including Ceylon and Burma. Taylor and Francis, London.\n\nHong Kong, 20 July 1978\n\nJ. D. ROMER\n\nTHE PUBLIC BOTANIC GARDEN OF HONG KONG\n\nSir John Bowring, Governor of Hong Kong from April 1854 to May 1859, was a Governor with wide interests. In his History of Hong Kong, George Endacott relates (pp. 104-105):\n\nHe cared for cultural things; he set up a museum in one of the rooms of the Supreme Court to the annoyance of the court officials, and he was the leader of the local branch of the Royal Asiatic Society. He was also very keen to set up a public Botanic Garden, and lectured to the Royal Asiatic Society in Hong Kong on its value in spreading knowledge of Chinese trees, woods and fibres.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1977.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208214, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1977", "page_number": 253, "title": "RAS-1977", "content_text": "NOTES AND QUERIES\n\nOCCURRENCE OF THE FROGS\n\nRANA PARASPINOSA AND RANA SPINOSA\n\nIN HONG KONG\n\n237\n\nThe herpetological literature for over half a century has recorded the occurrence of Rana spinosa David in Hong Kong. However, Dubois (1975) has shown that a series totalling sixteen preserved specimens in the British Museum (Natural History) and in the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard University, under the name Rana spinosa and having come from Hong Kong, represent a species closely related to, but distinct from, R. spinosa. He has named these frogs Rana (Paa) paraspinosa, having stated the type locality to be 'The Peak, Hong Kong' and recorded a paratype from 'Mount Butler, Hong Kong.' Dubois' discovery that what was previously thought to be R. spinosa is a closely related but distinct species will inevitably cause confusion as regards much of the existing literature recording 'R. spinosa' from Hong Kong.\n\nHaving re-examined all of the specimens which I had identified as R. spinosa in my own collection from The Peak district on Hong Kong Island (four males and five females, all adults) and Tai Po Kau Forest Reserve in the New Territories mainland of Hong Kong (one adult female), I find them all to be R. paraspinosa.\n\nThe main purpose of this note is to record the recent finding of Rana spinosa on the mountain Tai Mo Shan in the New Territories of Hong Kong. A total of seven specimens, comprising three adults and four juveniles, were taken by Dr. Frank F. Reitinger and Mr. Jerry K. S. Lee on 9 and 18 July 1978 at altitudes ranging from about 853 to 870 metres.\n\nAnother point, of ecological interest, is the fact that R. paraspinosa also occurs on Tai Mo Shan. As yet the evidence for this rests on a single fully mature female taken at an altitude of about 808 metres by Dr. Frank F. Reitinger on 14 July 1978. Thus, with the specimen from Tai Po Kau Forest Reserve mentioned above, two specimens of R. paraspinosa have so far been recorded for the New Territories mainland. While both paraspinosa and spinosa occur in the mainland area of Hong Kong, present indications are that the latter may not inhabit Hong Kong Island. It would be interesting to obtain specimens from streams high up on Lantau Island, where both species may reasonably be expected to occur.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1977.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211498, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1988", "page_number": 214, "title": "RAS-1988", "content_text": "190\n\nof Mr. Bolton of the Atheneum of Boston, U.S.A.\". This catalogue was dictionary in format and it included 2,125 catalogued items, grouped as follows:\n\nGeneral Works 324\n\nPhilosophy 278\n\nReligion 54\n\nSociology 65\n\nPhilology 120\n\nNatural Sciences 52\n\nUseful Arts 133\n\nFine Arts 84\n\nLiterature 340\n\nHistory 675\n\n(13) on Chinese languages)20\n\nThe need for a new and larger building became a regular topic of discussion, and the Shanghai Municipal Council became a frequent, if unpredictable, supporter of its causes, including the funding of the renovation of its building in 1909.2\n\nIn a guidebook written about this time, the Rev. C. E. Darwent wrote:\n\nThe building in which the society is housed is situated in the Museum Road, just behind the British Post Office. There is a good library of books, on Oriental subjects mainly; a good supply of the proceedings of learned societies and learned magazines is kept. There is an exceedingly comfortable lecture hall; upstairs is a museum. The fathers of the settlement did well for it; their successors do nothing.2\n\nBy 1910 the library was open seven days a week, and no longer closed for tiffin as it had in earlier times. Donations were increasing, thanks largely to its new honorary librarian, Florence Wheelock Ayscough. A **suggestion book** was put out. A Chinese “assistant librarian” was engaged, first a \"Mr. Woo\" and later a \"Mr. Wong\", the latter described as “hard-working and attentive”. These people presumably did the routine checking out of materials, shelving, and record keeping. The library remained essentially an institution serving the foreign community although there was some Chinese membership in later years.\n\nA bequest from Thomas Kingsmill, a long-time society member, enriched the library. Duplicate works were sold and the funds used to", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1988.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ft84gb83q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214302, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1998", "page_number": 160, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "124\n\nschool in Chefoo in Shantung province before returning to England where he attended the Bath Art and Technical School. There he studied art before switching to Bristol University to read for a BSc in science. He would appear to have given up his higher education following the shattering of his romantic aspirations when he ran away to sea and worked his passage to Canada. He toiled for a while in Canada before returning to his parents in Taiyuan in 1905 with vague plans to hunt and explore the wild and barren areas of north China; he was twenty at the time. In practice he took up a teaching appointment at the Anglo-Chinese College in Tientsin and only during the vacations was he able to hunt and seek specimens for the natural history museum he was establishing at the college. From the vague evidence available he would appear to have remained at the school for only a matter of a year as he was invited at the end of the final term to join the Duke of Bedford's expedition to collect zoological specimens in Shensi province for the British Museum. Shensi is the neighbouring province to Shansi and lies to its west.\n\nThe Duke of Bedford's expedition travelled through Sowerby's home province of Shansi where they lived for a week or so in one of the typical village cave houses of the Yellow Earth country, in a village some fifty miles west of Taiyuan. From there they continued west, across the Yellow River to Yenan in Shensi and on into the Ordos desert. Their return route took them north to the Great Wall, which they then followed to the east before turning south to Taiyuan down the main route through Shansi. The whole expedition took some five months and Arthur Sowerby would have been just twenty-one. It was during this expedition that Sowerby discovered a new species of jerboa [kangaroo rat] which was sent back to the British Museum and subsequently named after him, Dipus sagitta sowerbyi.\n\nComing from a missionary family he would have had little or no financial support from his father and would have needed to work for a living. He was sponsored for a number of years by a wealthy American, Robert Sterling Clark, who remained a friend for most of Sowerby's life, and although it is no more than supposition he may well have continued teaching at the Anglo-Chinese College in Tientsin especially in view of his marriage in that city in 1910, at the age of twenty-six. The long vacations would have been an advantage enabling him to gather the material he later used in the China Journal, especially his", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 } ]