[ { "id": 204254, "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": 22, "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\n19\n\nthe density of nesting birds is considerably less owing to the lack of suitable cover and nests are in any case difficult to find, there is a wide variety of nesting birds ranging from the great family of egrets and herons, with eight or nine species, through a list including the Black-eared Kite, White-bellied Sea-eagle, Francolin, Koel and Crow-Pheasant, drongos and mynahs, bulbuls and babblers down to the Tree-sparrow and Spotted Munia—altogether a large range.\n\nNow I shall discuss Hong Kong's birds in more detail, taking them roughly in the order of the new Check-List* so that gaps, especially in the case of rarities, may be filled in by reference to that book.\n\nThe Great Crested Grebe and the Little Grebe are both common winter visitors but are very localised. The favourite haunt of the former is Deep Bay, whilst up to forty of the latter may be observed on Tai Lam Chung Reservoir. They are rarely seen in breeding plumage and are consequently rather dull-looking. In Deep Bay, along with the Great Crested Grebe one may also see quite large numbers of cormorants, big black diving birds which feed voraciously on fish. An even larger companion of these two varieties in the same area is the Spotted-billed Pelican. Up to twenty of these enormous white birds may be seen, especially at low tide, during the coldest months.\n\nOne of the greatest attractions to bird-watchers in the Colony, particularly in June and July when there is little else to see, is the great variety of egrets and herons which visit and nest here. There are the small Yellow Bittern and Little Green Heron which may be seen in the mangroves on the edge of Deep Bay; the Great, Little, Swinhoe's and Cattle Pond Herons which nest widely in heronries throughout the northern New Territories; and the lonely Reef Egret which nests on Tung Lung Island, Waglan, and perhaps elsewhere in the southeastern part of the Colony. These birds are an ever-present source of delight with their fine plumage and graceful flight and movements. There are others in the same family, such as the Grey and Purple Herons, but they unfortunately are only visitors.\n\nDespite the abundance of water surrounding the Colony and a good deal of suitably marshy ground in the north-west, duck are by no means common, and apart from the Falcated Teal at the mouth of the Shum Chun River, and the Yellow-nib Duck and Teal in evening flight near Lok Ma Chau, very few can be expected. This is a pity, for duck are exciting birds to watch.\n\nAnnotated Check-List of the Birds of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, South China Morning Post Ltd., 1960.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1961.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/vd6724704", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204258, "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": 26, "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\n23\n\nrelative, the Black-throated Laughing-thrush, which is confined to Hong Kong Island and is a handsome bird of black and grey with white cheeks. Not so rare but still uncommon is another relative, the Hwamei. This name means 'Painted Eyebrows', a tribute to the most distinctive part of its plumage, but more than anything the Hwamei is famed for its voice. To hear a chorus of these birds almost any evening of the year, their song rather like that of the European Song Thrush, is an unforgettable experience, and the pity is that this species is only really well known on Hong Kong Island, being very local elsewhere.\n\nOne of the most charming families of birds to be seen in the Colony is that of the flycatchers, none of which actually breed here, but either pass through on migration or spend the winter. The variety of plumage is quite bewildering and some of the more exotic species, like the Paradise Flycatcher with its eight inches of tail, the black-and-lemon coloured Narcissus and Tricolour Flycatchers, the malachite-green Verditer Flycatcher, the Blue-and-White Flycatcher, and the Robin and Red-breasted Flycatchers are quite eye-catching and endearing to watch as they fly out from a favourite perch to snap at a passing insect.\n\nSimilarly, the great family of warblers is poorly represented by resident species, although many hundreds of migrants pass through or perhaps stay for the winter. The Deep Bay marshes provide nesting cover for the Fantail Warbler, Yellow-bellied and Brown Wren-warblers, whilst the Tailor-bird, with its neatly-sewn leaf house, breeds commonly all over the Colony. Probably no more than one or two pairs of David's Hill-warbler may nest near the top of Tai Mo Shan. Such permanent residents are far outnumbered by the winter visitors, like the Dusky, Pallas's and Yellow-browed Warblers, and the migrants, like the Arctic Warbler and Great Reed-warbler.\n\nOf the smaller thrushes, the Magpie-robin is the only resident, and is common all over the Colony. It is the third of our trio of fine songsters and with its smart pied plumage is an attractive addition to the list. But there are several more chats which are quite common in winter; the Rubythroat, Red-flanked Bluetail, and Daurian Redstart (all described by their names), the Stonechat all over the marshes and paddy-fields, and the Bluethroat on passage near Deep Bay. Among the larger thrushes the Violet Whistling Thrush is the only resident and may be found near most of the watercourses throughout the Colony, from The Peak and Tai Mo Shan down to sea-level. It has a very pretty habit of fanning its tail at rest. Many other thrushes come to the woods of Hong Kong in winter, but are usually shy and difficult to see. The Blackbird is quite common as are the Grey-backed and Grey Thrushes. On the rocky coastline both the Blue and the Red-bellied Rock-thrushes may frequently be seen.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1961.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/vd6724704", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206009, "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": 89, "title": "RAS-1970", "content_text": "84 \n\nA. D. BLUE \n\ncame from cholera and fire, and not from revolt. It was generally believed that the Chinese were more able to look after themselves than the Indians. \n\nOne of the greatest tragedies in Chinese emigration befell the American clipper Flora Temple in 1859. The Flora Temple left Macao for Havana with 850 passengers, who were rebellious from the very start of the passage. Although they were unsuccessful in breaking out of the holds, they killed one of the crew who fell into their clutches. The ship ran into bad weather four days out from Macao, and was unable to take accurate sights. Two days later she ran on a reef off the coast of Indo-China. It was apparent that she would soon break up, so the captain and crew launched and provisioned the two lifeboats, and abandoned the ship and passengers. After a rough passage the captain and one of the lifeboats reached the coast near Touron twelve days later, but nothing was heard of the other lifeboat. A French naval ship was sent to rescue the deserted coolies and search for the missing lifeboat. When they arrived at the scene of the wreck, however, all they could find was a few planks of the Flora Temple, but no trace of the passengers or other lifeboat. \n\nAnother tragedy, but on a smaller scale, befell the British barque Sophia Fraser when taking emigrants from Amoy to Penang. The Sophia Fraser ran into a typhoon three days out of Amoy, and during the pandemonium which broke out among the coolies confined in the 'tween decks thirty-five died. The subsequent enquiry revealed that only four of the deaths were due to natural causes, the rest having been killed in the senseless fight caused by panic. This bears some resemblance to the central incident in Conrad's novel \"Typhoon\", as the burning of the Shah Jehan in the Indian coolie trade resembles the central incident in \"Lord Jim\". \n\nWhat appeared at the time to be one of the major tragedies in the history of Chinese emigration concerned the French ship St. Paul in 1858, when taking 327 indentured labourers from Hong Kong to the Australian gold fields. The St. Paul ran on a reef off Rossel Island, a small island lying to the east of the New Guinea islands, and the captain and eight of the crew were picked up fifteen days later by the British schooner Prince of Denmark. After an inexplicable delay of two months they were put ashore", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1970.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ww72j0241", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206066, "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": 146, "title": "RAS-1970", "content_text": "HONG KONG BEFORE THE BRITISH\n\n141\n\nof sand can be deduced from finds of more recent dating such as pottery and ornaments of Chinese peasants, but, given the proximity of the sites to the sea and the number of storms and typhoons which must have affected them, it is not likely that the sand has accumulated at a constant rate. The date of the settlements can only be inferred from a comparison of the objects found in them.\n\nThe objects are of three categories: stone, pottery and metal. These three categories are found so constantly together at the same level that they must have been used simultaneously by the same people.\n\nStone was used for tools and for ornaments. Of the stone tools there are two kinds: unpolished and polished. The former are rude hammers, bevels and knives of the neolithic type. They often bear traces of use. These might have been picked up and chosen for their sharpness or solidity or convenience and thrown away when a better was found, and they are the crudest tools that man could use. It is true, however, that they are not found in very large numbers compared with the other implements.\n\nThe polished stone tools, on the other hand, show a high stage of workmanship. The most remarkable are the adzes, a tool which at first sight looks like a large chisel with a slightly rounded cutting edge. The opposite end has a \"shoulder\" or socket which it is believed was fastened into a cleft piece of wood and bound firmly with hemp or reed. This piece of wood was affixed to a handle at right angles and the tool was used, as we would a hoe, to cut downward and inward.\n\nThe adzes are of all sizes. The author, in excavating the site on Lantau Island, has found seventeen. One is only two centimetres long; four others less than five centimetres; they look like miniature tools and it is not possible to guess what they were for. The majority are from 6 to 12 centimetres long, some of them made of stone probably chosen for its beauty. There are two of 19 centimetres length, solid tools with which it would be possible to hew planks or even, with much labour, to cut down a small tree.\n\nThe adzes are of granite or basaltic rock. Other types of stone implement are made of shale, a kind of soft slate. The polished stone weapons are all of this material. They are blades and arrow heads, very sharp and pointed, without thickness and grooved in the centre of the blade. Most of them were probably made for", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1970.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ww72j0241", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207084, "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-1974", "page_number": 155, "title": "RAS-1974", "content_text": "HONG KONG PLACE NAMES\n\nS.S.\n\nO.S.\n\n57\n\nnim\n\n稔 淰\n\nnhimms\n\n58\n\nnia\n\nnriu\n\n59\n\n61\n\n28\n\n60\n\n澳\n\nqou\n\npa 爬耙艳\n\npraahó\n\npai 排排\n\npraayl\n\n62\n\npak 北\n\nbhak\n\n63\n\npak 白\n\nbraaks\n\n64\n\npak- 伯公\n\nbaakghung\n\nkung\n\nMeaning or Remarks\n\n149\n\nDictionaries give 'ripe grain', but the only meaning that seems to fit all cases is 'wet, muddy'. See (51).\n\nSaid in many places not to mean 'urine'. Is this prudishness, or is niu and its variant liu (35) another alternative for ngau (54), and if so did the name of this tribe in their own language begin with a nasal?\n\nA harbour: but often confused with au (2).\n\nA reef; a small island. But the many instances where this syllable occurs in mountain villages have yet to be cleared up. Sometimes interchangeable (despite the great difference in modern pronunciation with (63) and (76). See pages 156-157.\n\nIn some cases interchangeable with (62) and (76) and cannot mean 'white'. See pages 156-157, also (65).\n\nA numerous tribe of local gods each of whom is responsible for a path, bridge, gate, mountain pass, etc. Several passes are named Pak-kung Au as a result. The pak-kung", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1974.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208637, "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-1979", "page_number": 94, "title": "RAS-1979", "content_text": "THE MARYKNOLL MISSION, HONG KONG 1941-46\n\n67\n\nLooking forward, as only Father Meyer can do, he buys a small pig and puts it down in brine, and now and then in addition to our cans of bully beef, we have a slice of salt pork.\n\nSome of us are anxious to get to Hong Kong for various reasons. Bishop O'Gara to see the dentist and Father Troesch, with his procuratorial instinct, to see about food supplies. Permission therefore being duly secured, the Bishop, accompanied by Fathers Benson and Norris, C. P., start out for Hong Kong on foot, as there isn't a car on the road, save occasionally Japanese army trucks or official cars. Father Troesch also succeeds in getting passes for two, and he and Father Meyer trek in to see what is to be seen and what is to be done. We are also rationing our Mass candles and wine.\n\nAfter saying Mass on the sixth at the Carmelite Convent, the Bishop comes up again to see us. With him is a Korean Seminarian from Rosary Hill. As a few of our members are ill, this seminarian is instrumental in securing the services of a Japanese doctor. He seemed rather kindly disposed, but could not do much under the circumstances, though he promised to have the sick men transported to Queen Mary Hospital. Accordingly, in the afternoon, a truck drew up in our driveway and Father Bauer, Brothers Michael and Thaddeus are put aboard. Bishop Valtorta and Father Toomey get permission to accompany them. Fathers Troesch and Meyer return with the news that Bishop O'Gara and Fathers Benson and Norris have been interned in Hong Kong! We may be next, but nevertheless today we again started our language classes.\n\nAnd now for a little retrospect as to what happened in Hong Kong after the 16th, when the writer returned to Stanley. We left the Japanese in complete possession of Kowloon and as their peace mission failed, they returned to prosecute the siege of Hong Kong. The shelling and bombing kept up, and within a few days, they had effected a landing on the Island at North Point, from which place they advanced towards the city and inland to Stanley. Later, other landings were undoubtedly made as they were soon in control of Aberdeen and Repulse Bay. The guns on Stonecutters Island had been silenced as were those on Mt. Davis. Bitter street fighting took place as the enemy advanced to Causeway Bay and through Wanchai. The central part of the city suffered little actual damage, although an occasional bomb or shell fell there. Later on, the worst damage inflicted on property was by the looters, who virtually stripped buildings of all their woodwork for fuel. In many instances.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1979.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209867, "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-1983", "page_number": 126, "title": "RAS-1983", "content_text": "104\n\nBefore moving on to discuss the larger islands to the south-east of Lantau, it is worth just mentioning the small islands off Lantau. There are small islands both to the north and the south of the main island.\n\nThe Islands north of Lantau are six in number.\n\nEast Brother, Reef Island and West Brother; fishermen sometimes live there.\n\nChek Lap Kok (\"Red Sea-perch Point\") is a barren island of low granite hills which lies in front of Tung Chung, sheltering its harbour. Big reefs of quartz run through it. Two formerly prosperous quarries on this island were ruined by the 1925 strike. Now there is only farming and fishing. Kwo Lo Wan is a ruined village on the southern isthmus: it is a common placename.\n\nShau Chau (\"Guard-station Isle\") 18; has three dumb-bell isthmuses, two covered at high water, and a third, on which there is a settlement of early man. There is a deserted temple here.\n\nTongkwu (“Brass Drum\") 19 has the chief early settlement of men in this area. The objects found show very little Chinese influence. Later settlements in Sung and Ming times were at the northern end of the beach. The island is used now for fishing and pasturing cattle, and there is a lighthouse. It is a very good example of a dumb-bell island - a sandy isthmus connecting two hills.\n\nUrmston Roads, as the waters between Tongkwu and the mainland are known, was a frequent anchorage for foreign fleets in the 1839 and 1857 wars, despite a strong tidal flow. It was used by a French squadron in 1857, and one ship left a record of her presence by inscribing a stone at Castle Peak with \"Nemesis 1857\".\n\nWe now pass south of Lantau. All this coast suffers from lack of harbours: only bays facing south-west are any good. There is always some swell; and it can be very violent sometimes.\n\nTaking the small islands to the south of Lantau, we have firstly the Soko Islands. There are eight islands in this group", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1983.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j9607p61v", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210165, "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-1984", "page_number": 136, "title": "RAS-1984", "content_text": "speaking particularly of the Hong Kong villages, stated:\n\n115\n\n\"The inhabitants, from our knowledge of their character, appear to be industrious and obliging... From all accounts they seem in general to have been very peaceably disposed; nor did they exhibit any marked approbation or disapprobation, on their transfer to the British sway.\n\n+32\n\nAnother officer, Captain Loch, described a visit to one of the Hong Kong villages, possibly Tai Tam Tuk which was removed for the last of the reservoirs of that name in 1913:\n\n\"The path now wound round a tongue of land to the left into a small dell, where there were a few houses built in a line. The patriarch and ruler of this community was standing foremost, ready to receive us. This universal custom of acknowledging the superiority of age has been recognized by us throughout the island.”33\n\nMcKenzie also mentions being entertained by a village elder ‘during an excursion into the interior' of the island.34\n\nThis civility and hospitality was apparently not new, nor wholly to be ascribed to the circumspection that was surely felt at the change of rulers. A guide to navigation on the South China coast published in 1806 quotes a report on Hong Kong and its approaches dated September 1793 which says of the island.\n\n\"You will be supplied here with almost every kind of refreshment; especially fish, hogs, beef and poultry. We found the Inhabitants very civil and were daily on shore at the Villages, and fowling in the interior parts of the Island (sic).\n\n+35\n\nSentiments of a similar kind relating to some years later, are contained in Sir John Davis' account of his visit to China as part of the Amherst embassy in 1816. Describing some Hong Kong persons, \"mostly fishermen\", encountered on the way to the Pearl River he added “To such of the embassy as were accustomed to the impertinence of the Canton people their behaviour appeared very quiet and civil.”36", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1984.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/5h73wh572", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210799, "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-1986", "page_number": 150, "title": "RAS-1986", "content_text": "133\n\nger ferry service direct to Hong Kong has already been established, and airports at Haikou and Sanya are being up-graded to international standard for direct air links with Hong Kong. A 50-km railway link will complete the link between Ba Suo, Lintau and Yulin. For energy, an open-cut mine will be developed at Changpo with capital investment of US$ 60 million (Bulletin, May 10, 1983) and the estimated output of 500,000 tonne of coal will be used at power stations at Changpo and Haikou (China Daily, November 25, 1983).\n\nThe projects which the Hainan authorities would like to proceed as joint ventures with foreign capital are listed in Table 1 (Anon., 1982a). These projects were presented to the Australian Department of Trade as being indicative of the range of the island's ambitions rather than as specific projects to which they\n\n \n Product\n Location\n size\n Comments\n \n \n Cement\n Dong Fang\n 1 Mt/a\n Export through Basuo.\n \n \n Petroleum refinery\n West Coast\n 1 Mt/a\n Based on expectations of offshore oil.\n \n \n Silicon carbide\n Dong Fang\n 15000 tpa\n Based on planned hydro expansion on Changhua River. High quality silica sand.\n \n \n Plate glass\n Daxian\n \n Rebuilding of facilities.\n \n \n Paper\n Daxian\n \n \n \n \n Aluminium\n \n 30000 tpa\n Long-term ambition.\n \n \n Tourism\n Five potential locations.\n \n \n \n \n Tropical agriculture\n \n \n Sugar cane, pineapple, cashews, coffee, cocoa macadamia nuts, beef and dairy cattle.\n \n \n Fish, prawns\n 27 sites available for fish farms.\n \n \n \n\nPage 150\n\nPage 151", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1986.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210802, "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-1986", "page_number": 153, "title": "RAS-1986", "content_text": "136\n\nD.L. MICHALK\n\noften limited to existing cultivated lands and to grain production which increasingly cramped our efforts.\n\n\"Our policy is to spare no effort in promoting grain production and diversified undertakings, [but] we should strive to protect existing grasslands, use them rationally, step up their development, rear as much livestock as possible, and at the same time encourage the raising of domestic animals and poultry in the vast countryside and so significantly develop animal husbandry.\"\n\nAs part of this planned expansion of beef output, officials in the southern province of Guangdong identified the dry tropics of Hainan Island as a region suitable for beef production for two reasons: first, unlike other parts of Guangdong, low rainfall and infertile soil preclude production of economic crops, and, second, the region already has an abundance of native Yellow Ox cattle and a large area of wasteland which could be used more intensively for beef production (Michalk et al, 1985).\n\nPresent output from cattle grazing native rangeland in this region under traditional management (i.e. herded by day and coralled at night) is extremely low: 30-60 kg LWG/ha/yr. Inadequate nutrition, especially during the seven month dry season, is the major cause for low beef production in western Hainan. Experience in the dry tropics of northern Australia has shown range improvement with Stylosanthes legumes to be a successful means of increasing beef output in situations where \"fixed area management\" is practised.\n\nWhile the Guangdong Government perceived the value of this type of technology for improving cattle production in Hainan, they also recognized that a lack of indigenous expertise in range science was a major constraint to the introduction, adaptation and popularization of appropriate range improvement technology for use on state farms where \"fixed area management\" is presently practised. To expedite technology transfer, Guangdong sought assistance from New South Wales, its \"sister state\" in Australia, to set up a \"model farm\" where field research could be undertaken to", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1986.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212173, "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-1990", "page_number": 115, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "92\n\nto present a neatly typewritten note in English, carefully preserved in a cellophane envelope, stating that the area was prohibited.\n\nThe pheasant shooting season continued until the Chinese New Year holiday, which falls late in January or early in February. It was generally possible to get two or three days off for this holiday, and at this date in 1937 two of us found ourselves some ten miles up the Yangtze above Nanking in the neighbourhood of the Three Hills. We had come in the houseboat, now so seldom used owing to the opening of the countryside to the greater convenience of the motor car. Only where the river bank was steep-to could we bring the boat sufficiently inshore to throw a plank across and step off; and so having disembarked we had to walk awhile until we reached a small creek, which we crossed in a borrowed sampan, before arriving at the extensive reed beds for which we were heading.\n\nAt this late season great stretches of the reeds had already been cut by the country people for use as fuel, leaving small clumps and narrow strips standing here and there. Inland, the fields, turned over by the shallow Chinese plough, showed long rows of soft green where the shoots of winter wheat sprouted. The country was ideal for pheasant. Unfortunately it was drizzling and blowing hard. Sandy, the smooth-haired black Labrador was at the top of his form, but nonplussed by the poor shooting. In such weather the birds would as a rule sit tight until the last moment, when they would get up suddenly at your feet; for some reason today they were wild and rising almost out of range. As we approached each patch of reeds, inside which pheasant might be sheltering from rain and squall, we would carefully move to the lee end and beat our way back upwind. My wife worked with us, and two of the boatmen, who also served to carry the bag. The pheasants were reluctant to fly, and would run unseen out of the reeds through the more open stretches of stubble to start up cackling indignantly at unexpected moments. The expenditure of cartridges was considerable, but so far as I remember, the bag only held six brace. Late in the afternoon, soaked, we boarded the houseboat. Luckily the run down with the tide was much quicker than the outward trip, and there was something in the icebox to keep the damp out. Little did we realise that was to be the last shoot for many a season!\n\nThat year was Coronation year: great preparations were made by", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212186, "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-1990", "page_number": 128, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "105\n\ntimed with their fuses set to burst just a few feet above water level. But the gunners evidently found the moving targets difficult to follow, because the aim grew wilder and eventually the shelling ceased. As the sun set in the west, the British ships came to anchor off the Three Hills, where I had my last pheasant shoot, while the American ships anchored in a group a few miles lower down.\n\nNext morning broke clear and sunny, one of those late autumn days in China, when there is not a ripple on the river, and the smoke hangs low in a thin pall over the country villages. Gun fire could be heard in the distance, both above and below the concentration of neutral vessels; and by-and-by the three American ships, escorted by the U.S.S. \"Panay\", got under way and steamed upriver. As she went by, the \"Panay\" stopped to pass back one of our wounded men, who had been kindly accommodated in her sick bay, and the Commander explained that he was taking his ships further up towards **Pidgeon Island** as the Japanese had been dropping some \"bricks\" in the river just below them. Not for the first, or the last, time in China, the Americans elected to play a lone hand.\n\nMeanwhile the refugees on the British vessels whiled away the time counting up the splinter holes in their ships, attending to the wounded, and in mutual visits for gossip over the events of the previous day. Every one thought it was all a mistake, although some concern was caused at about 10 o'clock, when a number of Japanese military landing craft were seen upriver pulling in to the north bank, on to which they ran a small gun which was openly trained at the ships. But the feeling of security was confirmed when the Japanese craft, one after the other, steamed out towards the British gunboats, circled round them, waved a salute or two, and then went on their way down river. There appeared to be no Chinese troops in the neighbourhood, and the Japanese sailed down the Yangtze unmolested, stopping to burn an occasional junk.\n\nIt was without an after-thought that we all sat down to lunch on that lovely Sunday morning on the Yangtze. We were anchored off the reed beds which grow round Rosina Beacon, and through the porthole I could see across the river the clumps out of which not so many months before we had driven our last pheasant. Imagine our astonishment and indignation when suddenly we heard the approaching noise of planes, the roar of power dives, and bombs", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215561, "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-2001", "page_number": 338, "title": "RAS-2001", "content_text": "288\n\nCape Collinson Lighthouse\n\nThe light at Cape Collinson was established on 1st March 1876, the year following the other two lighthouses. The reason for being later was that its apparatus was mistakenly sent to the Cape of Good Hope. The illuminating apparatus was fixed Dioptric of the Sixth Order. The focal plane of the light was 200 feet above mean sea level, and in clear weather it could be seen for a distance of eight miles. This lighthouse showed a white light on the bearings from N. 22 W. by East to S. 22 E. Ships heading for Victoria Harbour from the North and the Eastward were thus able to avoid Bokhara and Tathong Rocks, also the rocks outlying Sy Wan Bay by keeping the white light in sight. It also showed a red light from S. 22 E. by West to N. 22 W.20\n\nWhen all three lighthouses were first in operation, vessels entering Hong Kong harbour were adequately provided with navigational aids. Gradually, as time passed, lighthouses were required to display their own distinguishing characteristics and to repeat these at shorter intervals for more frequent observation as the speeds of steamships increased. In the beginning of the 20th century an 18-knot ship could travel over a quarter of a mile every minute. The older optics that revolved at the speed of four minutes per revolution were replaced by new ones revolving at 15 or 20 seconds. This was made possible by floating the lantern in a mercury bath causing it to revolve with minimum friction. This new technique was installed in lighthouses built in the 1890s.\n\nNew lighthouses\n\nIn 1892 and 1893, after much discussion and negotiation between Hong Kong and China, lighthouses were built on the two best sites initially chosen to light the approaches to Hong Kong: namely on Gap Rock and Waglan.\n\nAs early as 1867, before the building of the first lighthouse in Hong Kong, Commander Reed, a naval surveyor, was instructed to investigate suitable locations for lighthouses to cover the port approaches. He proposed Waglan Island and Gap Rock, small islands to the south of Hong Kong Island en route to Singapore. However, as neither of the proposed locations was within Hong Kong waters, these recommendations were not pursued.21", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215583, "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-2001", "page_number": 360, "title": "RAS-2001", "content_text": "310\n\n31 Under such conditions temperatures could reach 40 degrees Celsius.\n\n32 Gap Rock is sometimes known as Daam Gon Shan, in Cantonese, meaning \"Carrying Pole Hill,\"\n\n33 Besides Waglan Island, lighthouse keepers on Green Island (who were also Government Marine Department Staff) carried out weather observations and passed information on to the Royal Observatory Office at Kai Tak Airport.\n\n34 When the author visited Waglan, in 1999, all the buildings, including keepers' and soldiers' quarters and the fog-horn building, were still there although they were generally dilapidated.\n\n35 Author interviewed Tam Cheong-wai, then Superintendent of Aids to Navigation, Government Marine Department, 22 February 1999. Tam has since retired.\n\n37\n\nIX\n\n10\n\nB.P. stands for \"Bailey Pegs\" the maker's name.\n\nFare was not spartan if compared to that given to British soldiers during World War Two when, the author recalls, on active service \"iron rations\" sometimes consisted of a tin of bully beef and a packet of \"hard tack\" (army biscuits) for each soldier.\n\nAuthor's interview with Lai Tak-wah, Government Marine Department, 12 February 1999.\n\n38 Sometimes known as the \"Rose of China.\"\n\n39 A number of rocks in Hong Kong are imagined as resembling animals, birds and other objects. There are Lion Rock, Amah Rock and Lovers' Rock (\"Marriage Fate Rock\"). The last is along Bowen Path and is supposed to symbolise an erect phallus.\n\n40 The author recalls in Britain, between the two World Wars, that there were still a number of pictures of Grace Darling hanging in homes showing her rowing a lifeboat in a storm.\n\n42 The notification of marriage appeared in the South China Morning Post in August 1935.\n\nPage 360\n\nPage 361", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g", "rank": 0 } ]