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Introduction
- Hong Kong University Press, HKU
- Chapter
- Additional Information
Introduction The land and territorial waters of Hong Kong were ceded to the Britjsh in a series of three conventions, i.e., Chuenpi (1841): Hong Kong Island; Peking (1860): Kowloon; Peking (1898): the New Territories , the lease for which expires in 1997. Hong Kong is thus focussed upon its raison d' etre, Victoria Harbour, and its portfacilities are just as important now as they were in 1841. More so, with China's emergence as a world power. Hong Kong is thus a maritime territory and yet, surprisingly, as this bibliography will demonstrate, what are know about our coastal waters is woefully brief. This situation is to some extent being remedied as a growing burden of pollution forces study to understand and ameliorate its impact upon a body of coastal water that is put to a far greater variety of uses than was ever conceived of in 1841. Hong Kong has been visitedonly occasionally by scientific expeditions and naturalists and the early history oflocal marine biological research is thus not impressive. The first record ofa marine alga from the region is by C. Montagne who, in 1842, described a species of Sargassum from Macao collected by Gaudichaud during the voyage of the corvette La Bonite (1836-1837). In 1848, J.G. Agardh described six species of Sargassum from Macao and Hong Kong and which were collected by the Reverend George Harvey Vachell who was an English Chaplain resident in Macao from 1825 to 1836. Other specimens were sent to Professor Henslow and who in 1831, in tum, sent them to R.K. Greville (1794-1866). Between 1848 and 1849, and unaware ofAgardh's work on the same collection, Greville provided additional descriptions of species of Sargassum. Between 1865 and 1866, Greville also described new genera and species of diatoms from Hong Kong Harbour collected by J.L. Palmer, a Royal Navy Surgeon stationed here. Between 1845 and 1851, Hong Kong was visited by H.M.S. Herald with the botanist B. Seemann on board, who seems to have been one of the first naturalists to investigate the flora of Hong Kong Island and about which he published between 1856 and 1857. Such a publication was a prelude to several subsequent important volumes on Hong Kong's flora by G. Bentham (1861), F.B. Forbes and W.B. Hemsley (1886-1905) and S.T. Dunn and W.J. Tutcher (1912). Such volumes include descriptions of Hong Kong's coastal plants, but not algae. Perhaps the first true marine biologist to visit Hong Kong, however, was William Stimpson (1832-1872). On the 25 March 1854, the ships of the United States North Pacific Exploring Expedition (1853-1855), comprising the U.S. naval sloop Vincennes , the brig Porpoise, the steamer John Hancock, the schooner James Fennimore Cooper and the storeship John Pendleton Kennedy, sailed into Hong Kong harbour . Stimpson was the 22 year old naturalist on board the Vincennes. Between 25 March-l0 June 1854 and 29 January-6 April 1855 Stimpson assiduously collected invertebrates in Victoria Harbourand elsewhere in Hong Kong and, subsequently, in the South China Sea. Many of his descriptions of local species were actually written up during his second visit while he was confined to the Vincennes, as it was being refurbished. No journal of the Expedition ever appeared, however, virtually all specimens, notes and illustrations being destroyed in the great Chicago fire of 1871. Stimpson had, moreover, published only some ofhis work on the invertebrates, notably the Crustacea, so that the loss was virtually total. Stimpson's shell collection survived because it had been sent to Augustus Addison Gould (1805-1866) and who, between 1859 and 1860, published his account of these specimens. In 1859, W.H. Harvey described three species of algae from Hong Kong, collectedby CharlesWright also amember of the North Pacific Exploring Expedition, but these specimens too were lost in the Chicago fire. In 1866, Georg von Martens published descriptions of algae from Hong Kong collected by his son, Eduard, a zoologist on the Prussian Expedition to East Asia. In 1875, O. Debeaux published another account of algae from Hong Kong, collected during a French expedition to China (1860-1862). The most significant British exploring ship to visit HongKongwasH.M.S.Challenger(1872-1876)which arrived on 17 November 1874 and departed 6 January 1875. On board were a number of naturalists led by Prof. C. Wyville Thompson and including (later Sir) Xl Introduction John Murray. The monumental 50 volume Challenger Reports, brought to fruition by...