Condition. The journal has been bound in modern hardcovers. The original journal is in Very Good- condition. The front cover is present but the back cover is not. All text pages and illustrations are present. The pages are supple but age toned and they have edge tears and chips, particularly at the front and back. A bookplate has been removed from the inside front cover of the journal. Names have been written in pencil on the front cover, a front free page and the title page. A Kelly & Co. label is on the preface page. The first map has a 2 inch tear along a fold. There is scattered light foxing throughout. A circular water stain area is found at the top right corner starting at the front cover and running to around page 115. It starts out about one inch and gets progressively smaller.

 
Various Authors:
Journal of the North-China Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, New Series, No. II. December 1865, Shanghai, Printed at the Presbyterian Mission Press, 1866, 8vo, 4 plates, 187 pp. All four plates are printed on thin, high quality, laid paper. The "Annals of The Western Ocean" is the translation of a Japanese manuscript which recounts the arrest of a Roman Catholic priest (Jean Bapitista Shirotte) on the island of "Yaka-shirma" in 1708 and his removal and questioning in Nagasaki and finally trial, imprisonment and death in Yeddo in 1715. Swinhoe's article on the birds and animals of Formosa contains the name of the bird/animal in Chinese (written and tranliterated), English and in some case the Latin name. The Notes of the Geology of the Great Plain contains 19 figures/text illustrations. Most are woodcut drawings of shells. Two of the figures are cross-section diagrams.

The book was marketed by Kelly & Company and is sometimes found with the bookseller's small paste in label. The Kelly Company would later (ca 1876) combine with F.& C. Walsh to form Kelly & Walsh. The Kelly & Walsh Co. would, in later years, publish this journal.

 
Front Cover:

 
Contents:

Article I. Notes on the Geology of the Great Plain (by Dr Lamprey, Surgeon H.M.S. 67th Regt.)
Article II A Sketch of the Geology of a Portion of Quang-tung Province (By Thos. W. Kingsmill)
Artilce III. Birds and Beasts of Formosa (Translation by Robert Swinhoe)
Article IV. Annals of the Western Ocean (Translation by Rev. S.R. Brown)
Article V. Sorgo or Northern Chinese Sugar Cane (By Varnun Collins)
Article VI. A Visit to the Agricultural Mongals (By Rev. Joseph Edkins)
Article VII. The Hieroglyphic Character of the Chinese Written Language (By R.A. Jamieson)
Article VIII. The Remains of Ancient Kambodia (By Dr. Bation)
Article IX. Retrospect of Events in China and Japan During the Year 1865 (By Thos. W. Kingsmill)
Miscellaneous
Summary of Proceedings

"Map of China Showing the Great Plain," color (added by hand),
1 sheet fold out and short fold (1 inch) down

"The Daily Rise and Fall of the Tide at Woo-sung for the Year 1964," 1 fold out

"Map of Portion of Quangtung," multi-color (added by hand), 2 sheet folds out,
1/2 sheet old down

"Ideal Section Macao to Tsungwha," single sheet, cross section diagram