ON BEING THE FIRST WESTERN GEOLOGIST IN CHINA - THE WORK OF PUMPELLY,RAPHAEL (1837-1923)

An account is given of the reconnaissance investigations in China of t he American geologist and mining engineer, Raphael Pumpelly. Pumpelly is well known to Chinese historians of science as being the first prof essionally trained Western geologist to examine the geology of China. This paper offers a reconstruction of Pumpelly's journeys and seeks to understand what an explorer might do in a land where there had been n o previous geological investigations by persons trained in the methods of Western science. Pumpelly's hypotheses about the geology of China are also analysed and a sketch of his influence on the history of Chin ese geology is given.