[ { "id": 208134, "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": 173, "title": "RAS-1977", "content_text": "NOTES AND QUERIES\n\nROYAL ASIATIC SOCIETY - VISIT TO TAI MO SHAN, 3RD APRIL 1976\n\nSCIENTIFIC NOTES\n\nL. B. THROWER & STELLA L. THROWER, Department of Biology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong.\n\nTai Mo Shan (A), the highest mountain in Hong Kong, is only 958 metres high, yet it dominates the New Territories to a remarkable degree. This is partly because its total height is attained from sea level in a horizontal distance of only about 4.5 km, so that its full effect is obvious. The mountain itself and the hills around it, which might be called the Tai Mo Shan complex, amply reward either a short visit or exploration of longer duration. These notes are an expansion of a brief field guide that was prepared for the Society's visit in April 1976, and may serve as both an introduction to the area and as a statement of its condition in 1976-77.\n\nA sketch map of the Tai Mo Shan complex is given as Figure 1. In April 1976 the route was from Tsuen Wan to the junction of Route Twisk* and Tai Mo Shan Road (Stop A), and then to the upper car park (Stop B).\n\nClimate and Weather:\n\nMeasurements are available for a site near the present Youth Hostels Association premises, close to Stop B. They may be compared with records for the Royal Observatory in Kowloon.\n\n \n \n Tai Mo Shan\n Royal Obs.\n \n \n Annual rainfall: (cm.)\n 303\n 215\n \n \n Mean max. temp. (hottest month): °C\n 24.1\n 30.7\n \n \n Mean min. temp. (coldest month): °C\n 8.3\n 12.7\n \n\nIn fact, the summit of Tai Mo Shan has probably the highest rainfall of any place in Hong Kong; moreover, both the maximum and\n\nStrictly speaking, TWSK=Tsuen Wan-Shek Kong.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1977.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208137, "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": 176, "title": "RAS-1977", "content_text": "160\n\n \nNOTES AND QUERIES\n\n \nbrown and, apart from being somewhat darker at the surface, there is no sign of layers.\n\n \nVegetation:\n\n \nThe kind of vegetation on different parts of Tai Mo Shan depends on a variety of factors: altitude, soil conditions, exposure, and frequency of fires. Furthermore, trees have been planted on a considerable scale upon the upper slopes by the Agriculture and Fisheries Department; the main species are Acacia confusa (native), Pinus elliottii (from Caribbean region) and Tristania conferta (related to Eucalyptus sp., from Australia).\n\n \nBriefly, in sheltered sites where the soil is reasonably deep, with adequate moisture, but which have not experienced a fire for, say, twenty years a natural woodland will probably be present. Elsewhere, either grassland or scrubland will exist. Even where fires occur every few years, belts of natural woodland may survive beside water-courses—a situation that is analogous to the \"gallery forest\" of East Africa. Definitions of the kinds of vegetation have been compiled by the Hong Kong Government (1968), and the possible inter-relationship of the vegetation types have been discussed by Thrower (1975).\n\n \nThe Route in Outline:\n\n \n1. Route Twisk to Tai Mo Shan Road\n\n \na) The starting point was in Tsuen Wan, which is situated at approximately sea level and has a rainfall of about 200 cm.\n\n \nb) Beyond the outskirts of Tsuen Wan, note:\n\n \n— beside road on left-hand side is a border of Casuarina equisetifolia trees, which have some resemblance to pine trees; they are widely planted in Hong Kong and the western Pacific.\n\n \n— on right-hand side are constructed terraces with cultivation (including bananas), and burial urns, kam taap (金塔).\n\n \nc) As the 'bus climbs higher, note the hillside directly ahead: the plantation of Tristania conferta has been badly burnt. Many more examples of serious fires will be seen.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1977.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208141, "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": 180, "title": "RAS-1977", "content_text": "164 \n\nNOTES AND QUERIES \n\nmay have carried tea bushes, though plucking would not have been easy. \n\nd) Note that small trees and shrubs in and around the stream-bed were not seriously damaged by the fire of late 1975. The survival of trees beside water-courses, when the surrounding vegetation is burnt, is one of the bases for the existence of riverine forest or gallery forest in parts of the wet tropics that are influenced by man. \n\n4. The Return Journey \n\nOn the Society's excursion, the party retraced its route to Tsuen Wan. However, it is more interesting to return to Route Twisk, and then proceed northward to Shek Kong. Two other points of interest between the Stop B and Shek Kong will be described below, both of them relating to management of the countryside. \n\nCountryside Management I \n\nAbout 400 metres up Tai Mo Shan Road from Stop A, on the up-hill side of the road, is a site where some effects of fire have been studied. \n\nAbout 1970 the hillside was planted with Acacia confusa so that there was a rough grassland with some shrubs (grassland in transition to scrubland), and with small trees of A. confusa spaced regularly within it. By January, 1976 the Acacia had grown to a height of about 1.5 metres and their crowns covered perhaps 50% of the ground below. In that month a hill fire burnt part of the area so that there was a clear boundary between the burnt and unburnt portions. Obviously, this provided an opportunity to study both the effect of fire on the vegetation and the influence of establishing trees in a grassland. \n\nThe effect of an increasing cover of trees will be considered first by reference to changes taking place at the unburnt site. By October -- November 1976 the canopies covered 56% of the ground beneath and a year later this had increased to about 67% so that, on a sunny day, the amount of sunlight reaching the ground beneath the canopy was about 15% of that reaching the ground surface outside the canopy. Partly as a result of the reduced sunlight, the dry weight of plants beneath the acacias (grasses, herbs etc.) was \n\nPage 180\n\nPage 181", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1977.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208142, "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": 181, "title": "RAS-1977", "content_text": "NOTES AND QUERIES \n\n165 \n\nonly about 70% of that outside the canopy. Also, within the Acacia community the windspeed was markedly reduced. \n\nThe initial effect of fire was to kill the leaves and most branches of the Acacia trees, and to remove essentially all of the grasses and herbs, and the plant remains (litter) on the surface. Subsequently, the acacias produced new branches and the understorey plants grew again. Some of these changes can be summarized as follows: \n\nAcacia confusa: % cover by living crown Understorey plants: weight in g. per sq. metre Bare ground (without living plants): % Litter: weight in g. per sq. metre \n\n1976 1977 \n\n5 24 \n\n318 523 \n\n80 38 \n\n56 447 \n\nObviously the vegetation was re-establishing itself rapidly after the fire, but the effect of planting the trees had been put back by roughly four years. As will be suggested below, a cover of trees can improve the countryside in several ways so that their destruction must be prevented as far as possible. \n\nCountryside Management II \n\nIf anyone doubts the long term importance and value of protecting the countryside from damage by fire he should stop at the pavilion on the left hand side of Route Twisk as it descends to Shek Kong (altitude about 400 m.). Below is the air-strip at Shek Kong. To the north, the hills are covered with rough grasses and are yellow or brown in color for much of the year; these hills centre upon Kai Kung Leng (#572 m.). The impression is one of neglect. To the south, the ridges running down from Tai Mo Shan toward Tai Lam Chung are tree-covered and remain green throughout the year; the impression is one of well-being. \n\n(雞公嶺) \n\nThe difference is due simply to the kind of management given to the two regions. The northern hills are outside the forestry management areas of the Agriculture and Fisheries Department and receive little or no protection from fire. By contrast, the ridges to the south have long been given protection from fire and have been planted with trees. Quite apart from the visual improvement, this kind of long-term management gives a tangible return in higher recreational potential, reduced soil erosion, and a better yield of water to reservoirs.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1977.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208144, "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": 183, "title": "RAS-1977", "content_text": "NOTES AND QUERIES \n\nPlate 4. A-Lichen Aspicilia sp. (ca. natural size) \n\nB-Lichen Xanthoparmelia sp. (ca. natural size) \n\nC \n\nThe grasshoppers Gastrimargus sp. and Patanga sp. The body of Patanga (r.h.s.) is about 6.5 cm long; the yellow and black pattern on the hind-wing of Gastrimargus (l.h.s.) is characteristic of the genus.\n\nPlate 5. A-terraces on slopes above the Kadoorie Experimental and Extension Farm.\n\n \nB-view of the stone retaining walls; note that the terrace is not flat but slopes from rear to front and from one side to the other.\n\nYuen Long \nShek Kong \nAir Strip & \nCamp \nOld Shek Kong Camp \nKadoorie Exp. \n& Ext. Farm \n1958 \n\n \n 300\n 900\n 800\n \n \n 0480\n 700\n +\n \n \n 600\n 500\n \n \n\nPoints visible from Stop \n\nDeep Bay old S.K. Summit of Kadoorie \n\nAirstrip \n\nCamp & Exp. & Ext. Farm, \n\nand Terraced Hill-sides \n\nLan Tau \n\nIsland \n\nTsing Yi Island \n\nCastle Peak \n\nTsing Yi Island \n\n·Route Twisk \n\nTsuen \n\nНап \n\nTown/ \n\n-Tarık \n\nFarm \n\n300. \n\nP \n\nTai Po \n\nvia Lam Tsuen Valley \n\nKowloon \n\nKn. \n\n+ \n\nN \n\nFigure 1. Sketch map of Tai Mo Shan complex, showing the contours in metres.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1977.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212662, "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-1991", "page_number": 216, "title": "RAS-1991", "content_text": "197\n\nA NOTE ON HONG KONG'S WILDLIFE\n\nDAN WATERS\n\nIn the mid-1960s, an Indian bird-watching friend counted 48 different species at King's Park, in the heart of Kowloon. In early 1955, when I first lived in Conduit Road, the western end resembled a delightful country lane and there you could occasionally hear barking deer call from Victoria Peak.\n\nSince late 1980 I have been going up and around the Peak regularly, four or five times a week. At first, I felt there was little wildlife left, but, more recently, largely because it is mainly nocturnal, my conclusions, agreeing with a second school of thought, are that there is far more than most people appreciate.\n\nOn 26 April, 1989, I saw a dead masked palm civet in Barker Road. This was followed, on 11 November, 1990, by a dead ferret badger on Plantation Road, and, on 17 November, 1991, another on Severn Road. All had blood on their snouts and had probably been struck by vehicles. The last two were seen at daybreak.\n\nThere are also 'good' years for snake sightings, and, in the autumn of 1991, I spotted a young cobra crossing Po Shan Road, near dwellings. The first snake I saw in 1992 was a cobra sunning itself, in mid March, on a hilly path off Hatton Road. Less frequently, one sees the odd fresh-water crab even as high up as Lugard Road, and blue-tailed skinks seem to appear in batches.\n\nAlthough not on the Peak, on the Royal Asiatic Society outing, on 4 March, 1989, high up near a plantation on Tai Mo Shan, RAS member Rosemary Lee and the son of Dr Elizabeth Sinn spotted what was believed to have been a crab-eating mongoose run across a track, off Route TWISK, in front of our coach. Patricia Marshall, in Wild Mammals of Hong Kong (1967), says, about the mongoose, 'Probably no longer exists in the Colony.' Nevertheless, according to a game warden at Mai Po Marshes, one was spotted by bird watchers at Tsim Bei Tsui at Christmas 1987.\n\nI have also been told of barking deer and porcupine being seen", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1991.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/k356gt84j", "rank": 0 } ]