THE VALLEY. 189 



from Peking to examine into the affair, and this 

 finally decided that the territory of the Ordos must 

 be considered to be the same as before, i.e. to 

 extend to the desiccated river bed. Even at the pre- 

 sent day parts of the same koshungs (banners) of 

 Ordos lie on both banks of the Hoang-ho, another 

 proof that the River entered its new channel after 

 the subdivision of the Ordos country into the present 

 koshungs. 



The valley of the Hoang-ho, in that part of its 

 course which we are describing, is from twenty to 

 forty miles broad, and of an alluvial clayey soil.^ 

 On the northern side of the river the valley widens 

 considerably to the west of the Munni-ula mountains, 

 while its southern shore is narrowed by the sands of 

 Kuzupchi, which approach close to the river. 



The northern side of the valley, with the excep- 

 tion of a narrow strip of land near the hills, where 

 the soil is sandy and stony, is well adapted for culti- 

 vation, and is thickly covered with Chinese villages. 

 The same remark applies to the southern bank of the 

 River, from the place '-^ where we crossed almost to 

 the meridian of the western corner of the Munni-ula. 

 This part of the valley is everywhere covered with 

 grass land, intersected by a few streams, and in 



^ We sometimes aruived at pure sand beneath a surface stratum of 

 clay not exceeding two or three feet in thickness. But the alkivial de- 

 posit near the river must be considerably more, because the above 

 result was obtained near the sands of Kuzupchi, therefore quite at the 

 verge of the valley of the Hoang-ho. 



^ It should be mentioned that the fruitful cultivated valley on the 

 southern shore of the Hoang-ho e.xtends much further eastwards than 

 the point of our crossing that river. 



