108 PROCEEDINGS OF THE CALIFORNIA 
advanced. He lived a useful life, was greatly respected, and died at a ripe 
old age. During a portion of his reign, a powerful revolt was successfully 
put down, indicating a mixed race, with the antagonisms of conflicting opin- 
ions. Five of his descendents succeeded, in turn, to his throne. Then came 
Tai Yao, followed by Yuti Tsi Yune, B. C. 2,294, during whose reign a great 
deluge occurred in Asia, which flooded fifteen provinces of China and drowned‘ 
great numbers of inhabitants. Some portions of the country remained under 
water for several years thereafter. 
This rupture of a natural barrier, which held in check some extensive inland 
basin of water, existing at a higher level, occurred just fifty-four years after 
Archbishop Usher fixes the arch-catustrophe of Hebrew tradition, and was 
doubtless like the Noachian flood, a crisis in the physical history of the region 
where it occurred. It ishighly probable that the great interior alkaline des- 
erts of North America, where the successive water lines around the surfaces 
of every elevation of its various levels, clearly indicate the former presence 
of vast inland basins of water; have at some remote period been, in like 
manner, drawn off and precipitated upon lower levels of this continent, in 
their journey towards the common level of the ocean. This is also shown by 
the presence of ancient river beds across the present summits of the Sierra 
Nevada Mountains. Nothing seems to impede the execution of unerring 
physical laws, and in the consideration of general history, natural science 
shows no relation between such physical calamities and personal guilt. 
B. C, 2,233, the next Emperor, Ta Yu, caused canals to be cut, to convey 
to the sea the immense bodies of water which, during the reign of his prede- 
cessor, had been precipitated upon and overflowed so large a part of China. 
By this means many deep river beds were finally cut, and continued to be 
worn away by the receding waters, until the whole country was freed from 
inundation. 
His eleventh descendent and successor was a tyrant, and was banished in 
the fifty-second year of his age, and king Ching Tang came to the throne, 
B. C. 1,766, and died 1,753 B.C. During his reign a great famine existed 
in China, which the records say lasted seven years. Joseph’s famine in 
Egypt occurred B. C. 1,707, or forty-six years after this date. These coinci- 
dences are merely cited as suggestive to historical students. 
It is desirable that the historical records of all ancient nations should be 
sought out and compared; and to our linguistic and archeological students 
on the Pacific, the early histories of China and Japan should be made the 
subject of careful study. Much mental and social cultivation existed in Asia 
when Europe was yet in her dark and undeveloped ages. China and Japan, 
as well as all the nations of Asia, yet contain many ancient records, that may 
well repay careful study, revealing traces of a civilization whose history is 
incredibly remote. Ere the ancient respect for sacred records has become 
impaired, and they are cast aside or destroyed in the ecstasy of a new-found 
religion, or the mechanical wonders of a scientific civilization, earnest and 
reliable students may acquire much important testimony among the archives 
of India, China and Japan. Few ancient races have preserved a literature of 
equal value with the Chinese. The great past of prehistoric humanity bears 
traces of activity and commercial intercourse throughout Asia. 
