44 OEOLOdlCALr.ESEARCnESIN 



distance of nearly 500 miles ; and that this sediment was brought by the Yellow 

 river and the tributaries of its upper course. 



We have seen that the immediate cause of the formation of these lake basins is 

 probably to be sought in the dislocation forming the plateau wall to the north of 

 them, the descent of the land previous to that event having probably been toward 

 the Gobi, in which direction also the Yellow river flowed, if it existed at that time. 



The waters of the Yellow river filled the chain of basins thus inclosed between the 

 plateau and the mountains forming the southern wall. There are now two channels 

 by which the drainage of all this area finds its way to the Yellow sea, the Yang Ho 

 gorge in the far east which opens on to the great plain west of Peking, and the 

 deeply cut channel through which the Yellow river flows between Shansi and Shensi. 

 Whether both of these outlets existed during the lake period, or only one of them, 

 is a question of much interest in a physical-geographical point of view, for if all, 

 or part, of the waters of the Yellow river flowed through the Yang Ho gorge, they 

 found their way to the sea through the lower Pei Ho, a stream with Avhich the 

 Y^OAV river has united within historical times, after having flowed in an entirely 

 difi'erent course, viz. its present one, in part, to the west and south of Shansi.^ 



The Yellow river flows, from Pauteh (chau) to the mouth of the Wei river, nearly 

 300 miles, almost due south, traversing, in deep gorges, two important mountain 

 ranges which seem to be great anticlinal ridges of the limestone, and several minor 

 ones. Considering these things, the regularity of its course is striking when com- 

 pared with the winding courses common to rivers that cross parallel ranges, and the 

 inclosed longitudinal valleys. The thought is suggested that the course of this 

 channel may have been determined by a great crack. 



In connection with this subject, I will add that it is certainly remarkable that 

 the Chinese traditions of two great floods, often cited in the west, toward proving 

 the universal belief in a general deluge, all point to this region. The earliest of 

 these traditions is allegorical and goes back to a time, about 3100 B. C, when the 

 yet barbarous founders of the nation were still living west of Shansi. " KiHgkung 

 fought with Chwanchio for the empire of the world ; in his rage he struck, with his 

 horn, the mountain Puchiau, which supports the pillars of heaven, and the bands 

 of the earth were torn asunder. The heavens fell to the northwest, and the earth 

 received a great crack in the southeast."^ 



The other tradition, preserved in the Shuking of Confucius, refers to a later date, 

 and partakes of a more historical character. According to this account,^ there was 

 a great flood in the 61st year of the reign of Yao (2297 B. C); the waters of the 

 Yellow river mingling with those of the Yangtse Kiang, and threatening to overflow 

 the mountains. A skilful engineer, Pekuen, worked nine years, without success, 



> See Chap. V. 



2 Klaproth, Ritter's Asicii, I, 158. Klaproth, in Asia Polyglotta, p. 28, comparing the dates of 

 Hebrew, Brahminical, and Chinese traditions of deluges, obtains: Samaritan text, B. C. 3044, 

 Brahminical date, B. C. 3101, Chinese, B. C. 3082, 



' Ritter, Asien, I, p. 159. Compare Deguignes, Gesch. dor Mongolen, Einleit. p. 4 ; and Mailla, 

 Histoiro generale de la Chine. 



