ABSTRACT
Ney Elias, who had travelled westward from India and met Margary in the Sino-Burmese borderlands, had gone ahead from the main body of the expedition at Bhamo at the time of Margary's death. The survey of the valley of Shweli (Shueli) River, a tributary of the Ayeyarwady (Irrawady) River originating in western Yunnan Province in China and flowing into Myanmar, reproduced represents the results of his solitary excursion. After the disappointments of Colonel Browne's 1875 overland mission, Elias continued his official exploratory activities in the regions of central Asia. A Visit to the Valley of Shueli is typical of the limited examples of Elias's style available: carefully composed and rigorously observed, it is also resolutely impersonal. This group of tribes resident in western China, northeastern India, and what is now northern Myanmar, is now known collectively as the Kachin.
