NOTES. 



[All iVoles signed V. arc by Colo7iel Ytile, the remainder are by Mr. Morgan. ] 



GREAT FLOODS IN CHINA. 

 Page 193. 



The Chinese annalists in the Shuking of Confucius re- 

 late, that in the sixty-first year of the great Emperor Yao 

 {B.C. 2297), a contemporary of Abraham, a disastrous flood 

 occurred, the waters of the Hoang-ho uniting with those of 

 the Yang-tse-kiang, submerging the whole of the inter- 

 vening country and putting a stop to agriculture and 

 industry. The efforts of the Emperor and his great officers 

 of state were directed to find some means of checking the 

 floods and alleviating the wide-spread distress of the popu- 

 lation ; and Pere Mailla, who visited these localities and 

 compared them with the Chinese maps, was astonished at 

 the gigantic nature of the works for draining the inundated 

 districts, of which traces remained even in his time. How 

 this great flood originated and what was the cause of it, 

 history gives no clue; and few scientific travellers have, 

 hitherto, visited the vast deserts lying to the north-west of 

 the Hoang-ho. Is it not possible that the great migration 

 of people, alluded to in the writings of Confucius, may in 

 some way be connected with these early traditions } At 

 all events, taking into consideration the sudden and des- 

 tructive inundations in the lower course of the Hoang-ho in 

 more recent times, and the terrible earthquakes to which 

 China was subject in A.D. 1037, we cannot regard the great 

 flood of China as an absolute impossibility, although 

 science may throw more light on the subject hereafter. 



The earlier inundation, referred to in the note, is of 

 purely legendary origin. The time assigned for its occur- 



