2I6

THE  CHINESE  EMPIRE

Tsinan,  and  emptied  into  the  Yellow  Sea  south  of  Shantung,
at  about  latitude  34 0  N.  ;  toward  the  end  of  the  thirteenth
century  it  broke  away  to  the  south-east  from  Kaifeng,  an
emptied  partly  through  the  last  mentioned  mouth  an
partly  into  the  Yangtze,  the  southern  mouth  of  which  is  at
latitude  31 0  N.  ;  in  1324  it  broke  away  lower  down  below
Kaifeng,  and  flowed  south-east  to  the  mouth  at  latitude
34 0  N.  ;  this  course  it  kept  until  1853,  when  it  resumed  its
north-easterly  course,  flowing  close  to  the  north  of  Tsinan  to  a
mouth  in  the  Gulf  of  Pechihli,  north  of  Shantung,  at  latitude
38 o  N.  These  are  what  may  be  termed  the  official
channels,  the  courses  which  the  river  condescends  to  recognise ­
  at  seasons  of  low  water.  In  times  of  flood  it  breaks
out  where  it  wills,  and,  even  at  the  present  time,  finds  an
outlet  for  its  waters  where  it  can,  some  falling  at  times  into
the  Yangtze,  some  into  the  Yellow  Sea,  some  as  far  north
as  Tientsin,  and  some  by  its  present  legitimate  mouth.  In
1887,  for  example,  it  broke  out  above  Kaifeng,  just  below
the  spot  where  the  Peking-Hankow  Railway  now  crosses
the  river,  and  formed  a  temporary  channel  to  the  southeast ­
  through  Honan  and  Anhwei.  Coming  from  the  treeless
plateau  of  Central  Asia,  and  flowing  through  a  treeless
country,  the  River  Ho  (i.e.  Hwang-ho,  as  the  Chinese  call
it)  brings  down  the  melting  snows  and  falling  rains  in  sudden
flood,  laden  heavily  with  detritus  from  the  loess  formation
of  the  west  and  north-west  ;  and  this  detritus,  checked  in
its  speed,  is  deposited  so  rapidly  that  the  river  bed  is  filled
b y  degrees  until  everywhere  its  bottom  is  higher  than  the
surrounding  plain.  Were  it  not  for  the  vast  sums  of  money
and  vast  amount  of  work  spent  upon  it  every  year  and
through  the  whole  year,  the  Yellow  River  would  have  no
fixed  channel,  but,  with  every  recurring  summer  and  its
attendant  flood,  would  spread  over  the  plain  which  extends
i 1 ? 1 ?  j° n ^ u&lt; ^ e  E.  to  the  sea,  and  from  the  Yangtze
atitude  32 o  N.  to  Tientsin.  Nor  do  these  floods  enrich  the
soi,  as  do  those  of  the  Yangtze  and  the  Nile,  but  they  deposit
an  in  ertile  sand  which  is  prevented  from  being  rendered  fertile ­
  by  the  combined  action  of  the  wind,  the  sun,  and  the  rain,