THE HOANG-HO; ITS VARIATIONS. 185 



tendency to flow to the north being checked by the 

 obstructing Gobi and the In-shan mountains, the 

 river makes another bend to the east, and near 

 the town of Kai-fong-fu the principal channel dis- 

 embogues in the Gulf of Pechihli, whilst another 

 lesser branch flows into the Yellow Sea. The chano-e 



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in the lower course of the Hoan^-ho occurred as re- 

 cently as 1855, when, after forcing a passage through 

 the embankments near Kai-fong-fu, the river took a 

 new course towards the Gulf of Pechihli, where it 

 now discharges at a distance of 270 miles to the 

 north of its former mouth. ^ 



The capricious windings of the Hoang-ho, and 

 the heavy rainfall in summer in the hilly districts on 

 its upper course, occasion frequent and extensive 

 inundations which sometimes cause disastrous losses 

 to the inhabitants. 



After crossing into Ordos, instead of taking the 

 shortest diagonal route, followed by Hue and Gabet, 



' In all our ordinary maps the Hoang-ho enters the sea in lat. 

 34°, south of the great peninsula of Shan-tung. This was its true 

 course down to some twenty years ago, and for six centuries before 

 that. But in the earliest times of which the Chinese have record the 

 Hoang-ho discharged into the Gulf of Pechihli, i.e. north of Shan-tung 

 and its mountains, and it continued to do so, though with sundry va- 

 riations of precise course, till the thirteenth century a.d. Before the 

 latter period the river had occasionally thrown off minor branches to 

 the south of Shan-tung, but it then changed its course boldly to the 

 latter direction, and so continued till our time. The tendency to 

 break towards the old northern discharge had long existed, and was 

 resisted by a vast and elaborate series of embankments. These gave 

 way partially in 1851 : following floods enlarged the breach, and in 

 1853 the river resumed its ancient course across the plains of Pechihli, 

 and now enters the gulf of that name in lat. 38° {circa). A sketch 

 map of these variations is given in ' Marco Polo,' 2nd ed., ii. 126, where 

 references to the chief authorities will also be found. — Y. 



