[
    {
        "id": 204806,
        "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-1964",
        "page_number": 109,
        "title": "RAS-1964",
        "content_text": "97\n\nHONG KONG BUTTERFLIES\n\nV. R. BURKHARDT\n\nRichard South, the author of the most popular handbook of British butterflies, prefaces his work by saying, \"Almost everyone admires the wild flowers that Nature produces so lavishly, and in such charming variety of form and colour; but, in addition to their own proper florescence, the plants of woodland, meadow, moor, and down have other blossoms that arise from them, although they are not of them. These are the beautiful winged creatures called butterflies, which, as crawling caterpillars, obtain their nourishment from plant leafage, and in the perfect state help the bees to rifle the flowers of their sweets, and at the same time assist in the work of fertilisation.\n\nEnglish butterflies rarely obtrude themselves on the stroller's gaze apart from the whites which devastate his cabbages, and the apparently aimless flight of the Meadow Brown, when crossing a hayfield. The real country lover passing through the leafless copse on a sunny windless day in February, may be heartened by the sight of the sulphur yellow of the male Brimstone which, as the \"butter-coloured fly\", gives its English name to the whole race. In Hong Kong, the most unobservant cannot fail to notice the brilliant \"aerial flowers\" referred to by the British naturalist, as the purple shot Euploeas, or the yellow Euremas pass him in the very centre of the city.\n\nThough the Colony lies just within the tropic of Cancer, at least seventy per cent of its butterflies are Palaearctic, that is to say, to be found normally in a zone running from Africa north of the Sahara across Europe and Asia to Japan and Formosa. The geology and climate of the Colony both militate against the luxurious vegetation associated with a tropical country. Though much has been done by the Government in the way of afforestation, there has not been time since the British occupation to produce the leaf mould and rich subsoil found in primitive jungle and forest, and the flora on which the larvae of butterflies feed is much more restricted than in countries like Malaya and Indonesia.\n\nEarly collectors identified about 140 different species of butterflies in the Colony, and J. C. Kershaw in his \"Butterflies of Hong",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1964.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qz20zx09r",
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    },
    {
        "id": 205985,
        "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": 65,
        "title": "RAS-1970",
        "content_text": "60\n\nLAMARR B. TROTT\n\nmonthly temperature of the air, and the sea surface temperatures of Tolo Harbour shows striking correlation. The temperature of the water falls well below 20°C (14.5°C) during the winter months. This would normally mean that reef-building corals would not be found here, and indeed a reef as such does not exist. However, we do have flourishing patch reefs, often comprised by species of reef-building corals, making this condition in Hong Kong unique biologically. Our geographic position being on the Tropic of Cancer would normally indicate a subtropical climate; however, winter-time cold air and water currents greatly influence the temperature of our environment, whether we consider the land or the sea. Our marine fauna is thus derived from the Indo-Pacific faunal realm, but it is also influenced by more temperate forms. A characteristic of the sea is the fact that the offspring of most marine creatures live for a time in what is termed the plankton, and drift freely in the sea at the mercy of ocean currents. If they can tolerate the conditions of the environment to which these currents bring them, then they become established in that area.\n\nOf other conditions of the marine environment than temperature that are important to Hong Kong, we can mention two in passing. One is salinity. Fresh water from the Pearl River flowing into our waters during and after the rainy season greatly reduces the saltiness of the waters of Deep Bay. The organisms living there must thus be able to tolerate a great change in salinity or be able to migrate to more favorable areas when the salinity becomes too low. Correlated with this is the sediment that is washed down with the Pearl River outflow. Many organisms cannot tolerate great amounts of sediment settling on top of them. Corals are one of the best examples. Thus, our corals are concentrated in areas of the Colony less under the influence of the Pearl River — Mirs Bay, for example.\n\nMy own research at the Chinese University has been concentrated in the area of Tolo Harbour. The site of the Chinese University on the shore of the harbour at Ma Liu Shui makes work in this area ideal. We have begun a general survey of the Harbour, which has included preliminary investigations of the mudflat areas, the level bottom communities, the fishes, and studies on associations between organisms. One of the primary aims of our program is to train students in the marine sciences.",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1970.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ww72j0241",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 210465,
        "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-1985",
        "page_number": 72,
        "title": "RAS-1985",
        "content_text": "53\n\nexpected, at least in the days before mechanisation.\n\nSeasonal activities were, of course, closely affected also by the weather. From the local fishermen's point of view, this had three major aspects: wind, rainfall, and the occurrence of tropical storms. Hong Kong, lying just within the Tropic of Cancer, has well-marked seasonal variations in wind direction, temperature, and rainfall. Generally speaking, the winter months are cold and damp, the spring foggy, the summer hot and very humid, and the autumn warm and dry. Both the NW winds of the winter and the SE winds of the summer monsoons could be utilised by fishermen even in days of sail, but the SE monsoon period has one vital peculiarity: it is the typhoon season. Though relatively rarely directly in the path of a typhoon, Hong Kong is affected by the proximity of about ten tropical storms every summer. The exact course of a typhoon being unpredictable, this means that there is a period of several days' uncertainty each time, during which winds of up to 80 m.p.h. may be experienced, with extremely high precipitation. The effects on the water-dwelling population can be imagined.\n\nKau Sai, facing slightly east of south, was totally unsafe in a typhoon. At the first hint of bad weather from the southeast in the summer, the junks would up anchor and make for Sai Kung on the mainland, where the harbour was more sheltered.24\n\nAnnual Rhythms\n\nAs in most other parts of the world, the annual rhythm of life in Kau Sai was marked out by the pattern of annually recurring ritual. Most of the rituals observed by the fishermen were common to non-Christian and non-Westernised Hong Kong Chinese, but there were certain omissions and some differences in content and emphasis. I have already mentioned the substitution of the Spirit of the Prow (suen tau kung) for the landsmen's Spirit of the Earth (tai tze). At New Year, worship was offered to Heaven and the Waters (tin shui) rather than Heaven and Earth (tin tei). There was a complete absence of any lineage ritual. Also, at New Year (or after a birth or death on board, or at any time of bad fortune), many a fisherman on one of his visits to town",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1985.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gt54s866x",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 210491,
        "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-1985",
        "page_number": 98,
        "title": "RAS-1985",
        "content_text": "79\n\nDepartment of Fisheries opened its first courses for training fishermen and their sons in the requirements of the simplified examination. The courses, for which no charge is made, have been running ever since.43\n\nThe Boats: Seasonal and Individual Differences\n\nLying as it does just within the Tropic of Cancer, Hong Kong experiences quite marked seasonal variations in temperature and rainfall. The months of January, February and March can be chilly indeed and very damp. The boat covers are seldom removed, padded clothes are piled on, and those who can afford them are glad to sleep rolled up in thick padded cotton quilts. April begins to warm up, but is usually still cool and wet until at the end of the month there is a dramatic change (often heralded by a week or two of dull, very humid weather) to the strong sunlight and high humidity of summer. The covers are rolled up, padded clothes and quilts stored away, and out come the canvas awnings which are rigged to provide shade at stern and bows. The warmth of the engine, which is a comfort in the winter, is much disliked in summer, but a moving boat is always cool and even at anchor the heat and humidity seem less on board than on land. One of the attractions of Kau Sai in the summer is the constant cool breeze that is guaranteed by its position at the edge of the narrow strait, and the clear, clean water where the children splash and swim. In the old days one of the most important functions of the village shop was to provide storage for winter clothes and quilts during the summer months; now these are kept in the fishermen's own new houses, but as the shopkeeper made no charge for this service no one is either better or worse off.\n\nApart from such seasonal changes as these it might be thought that there could be little scope for individual variations from junk to junk. The general layout of holds and deck space was the same for all purse-seiners and all long-liners respectively, and each was engaged in essentially exactly similar work. Moreover all were subject to such crushing limitations of space (giving each family quite considerably less room than in an old-fashioned gypsy caravan in England) that individual idiosyncrasy might be",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1985.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gt54s866x",
        "rank": 0
    }
]