CHINESE PROBLEM

Evening Post, Volume CIII, Issue 112, 15 May 1922, Page 8

CHINESE PROBLEM

LATEST BRITISH EX- :./■■ PEDITION

THE TASKS THAT LIE BEFORE IT

In the following article Professor J. W. Gregory, of. Glasgow University, who is about to set out on an expedition to South-Western China, deals with the problems which he hopes to solve. Professor Gregory, who is a Londoner by birth, arid was for some years in business, has -taken part in many- expeditions:- <He has explored in East Africa, was naturalist with Sir Martin Conway's Expedition across Spitzbergen in 1896, and was in 1900 .director of the Civilian Scientific Staff of the Antarctic Expedition.- He has also led expeditions to Lake Eyre, •to Cyrenaicaj and to Southern Angola. " The world presents no greater contrast within one climatic zone than that, between south-eastern Asia, with its irregular coasts, .narrow peninsulas, and many-armed islands, and south-western Asia and eastern Africa with their long regular coasts, broad peninsulas, and few compactly built islands. Yet. both these regions show evidence that the shape of the lands is the result of earth movements at about the same time. The geographical plans of both regions were probably determined by the rupturing of the. earth's crust when the Indian Ocean was formed by the foundering of a former land. The existing geographical conditions of the two regions appear to be the results of the same ultimate cause, and the striking differences between them, apart from the efI fects of climate, are due to the earth movements having acted on regions with different internal structures. These structures are in the main the result of mountain-forming movements at' two distant periods in the earth's history. The folding of the earth's crust by these movements has given rise to the existing mountain systems ot south-eastern Asia. BIRTH OF THE HIMALAYAS. : The later of these movements formed the Himalayas and its related mountain chains, which were contemporary with the 'uplift of the Alps in Europe. The earlier period was about the date of the formation of the world's chief coalfields; the folding of the crust at that time raised some of the older mountains of Europe, and in south-eastern Asia various1 , mountain ranges,/ including that which serves as the backbone of th? Malay Peninsula. The relations of these two mountain systems, the Himalayan and Indo-Ma-layan, in south-western China are uncertain. According to one "theory, which was adopted, by the late Prince Kiopotkin, the Himalayan line is continued across south-western China to the mountain chains of north-eastern Asia. '' Ac-. cording to an alternative theory, the eastward continuation of the Himalaya was blocked ,by the solid mountain mass of' south-western - China, and was therefore deflected southward, through western Banna and through Sumatra; it was thence continued eastward along the southern margin of the Eastern , Archipelago. The solution of these problems requires more detailed information than is at present available regarding the area where the Himalayan line, ;on the theory that it crosses south-western and central Phina, would interest the Indo-Malayari. ' UNIQUE RIVER SYSTEM. v I therefore hope during-' the coming summer to visit this area, accompanied by my son, Mr. C. J. Gregory, to obtain geographical and geological evidence 'upon this and the associated problems. : The.river system of the region is as remarkable as its mountain system, and is unique among the great rivers of the world. ■ ■ ', The drainage from eastern Tibet collects : into the three great rivers, which converge, to the south-east, as if, in accordance with the habit of rivers, they were going to unite;1 but, instead of joining, they flow in three parallel channels for a distance of 200 miles; then they suddenly diverge. . , The Yangtze Kiang, by a right-angled, bend, goes off across China to the Pacific; the Mekong, by a series of smaller bends, goes south-eastward; while the Salweri, by successive jerks to the west, reaches the Bay of Bengal. The three rivers, which are only 15 and 26 miles from one another in south-western' China; discharge through mouths 2000 miles; apart. . ...

The' expedition' hopes to " throw light on the remarkable parallelism- of the three rivers and their ultimate divergence. , These problems ; are intimately connected with the geological history of the Indian , Ocean. Its formation produced. [ some of the most striking geographical features of East Africa, as was stated in my recent work on the Rift Valleys and' Geology of East Africa. The subsidence of the floor of the Indian Ocean proEably had also important effects' along its eastern boundary. The Eastern Archipelago is clearly, one of the • parts'of the earth's , crust where a former land has been broken by/ earth movements into /islands. The; breaking up of the land was obviously not by one great convulsion, but by many incidents at intervals during a long period of time. Thus ajiimals and plants which made their first appearance on the earth at different periods have spread to different sections of this region. ; The migrations of the reptiles are especially instructive as to ,the dates of the, successive disruptions that made the. Eastern Archipelago.'. . : : HOW THE RACES SPREAD: • ; The biological and-geological evidence, combine to suggest that the land from which the archipelago was formed once, extended far eastward into the Pacific, and one contingent of its inhabitants spread eastward to tropical America, and' anotherj went westward to the borders of Tibet; The western limit of these ani-, rnals appears to have been in the area to be traversed by the expedition. We hope, therefore, to collect zoological arid botanical material,, which will throw "further light on the date of the land lines, and on tjje climatic changes' which have cdntrollW the migrations of animal and, plant life in south-eastern Asia. .. The"dry season of the winter, when the rivers are lowest and the tracks at their best, is the most comfortable season' for travel along the valleys; but it is less favourable for geological work at high, levels, and some of the passes are mot open from snow till the end of May or early June. Hence for our work the summer season is most propitious.