BLAKISTON, THOMAS WRIGHT: - Five Months on the Yang-tsze; with a Narrative of the Exploration of its Upper Waters, and Notices of the Present Rebellions in China. London, J. Murray, 1862.

. Pp. xiv, (ii), 380. With frontispiece, fifteen wood-engraved plates, two folding maps, seven text illustrations and a page from the author's field book. Occasionally some staining. Publisher's gilt cloth, somewhat faded and extremities lightly rubbed. Bookplate.First edition of a scarce work which for many years was considered the standard on the region including an accurate map of the river from Hankow to Pingshan. Thomas W. Blakiston (1832-91) was a British army officer and naturalist stationed in Canton during the Second Opium War in 1859. He organised an exploration of the middle and upper reaches of the Yang-tze-Kiang in 1861. The mission was to ascend the river as far as Min and then cross the province of Szechuan and reach northwestern India via Tibet and Lhasa. The party reached Pingshan after travelling eighteen hundred miles from Shanghai which was further than any other European explorer before them. This narrative contains interesting information about the country including fauna and flora, and also comments on the politically unstable situation in China at the time. The illustrations are by Alfred Barton. Cordier BS 121. Löwendahl 1263.

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