220 &. Pumpelly on the Delta-plain of the Yellow River. 
The Shantung boundary of the plain begins at Laichau (fu), 
and after describing a great bow to the south it turns west at 
Shukwang (hien), and running thence to Changtsiny (hien), in 
Tsinan (fu), it turns to the south and around to the south- 
east. Keeping this course it remains nearly parallel to the 
seein canal till the Kiangsu frontier, which it follows to 
the sea, 
The city of Peking stands on a raised border of loam, sand, 
clay, and gravel, which forms the northwestern skirt of the 
delta-lowlands, and seems to extend southward fringing the 
mountains along its western side. The name of the Talo lake 
(Ta, great, and-lo, plateau or raised plain) seems to refer to such 
a border, and in the article on Kichau in Yukung it is said 
that “the Lo (plateau) was drained,’’* 
The fact, also, that in historical times none of the arms of 
the Hwang Ho have approached the western mountain border 
of the plam, both north and south of Kaifung, within a less 
distance than from ten to fifty miles, seems to point to the ex- 
istence of a recent sea mar in, which would be perhaps due 
rather to the detritus biongi t 
_ the delta deposit of the Hwang H 
Ho have been recorded from early times by Chinese historians, 
and their documents and maps form the most complete history 
we possess of the wanderings of any riv 
y t. . 
e Yukungchuchi (Peking, 1705), written by Chin Hu 
Wei, contains a series of maps in which these changes are laid 
own for a period of more than 3000 years, M. Biot has 
given the substance of that part of this work that relates to 
paper, of which I shall make use in explaining the maps. 
* E. Biot, Sur le chapitre ukung, Journ. Asiatique, 1842. 
t Sur les changements du cours inférieur du fleuve Jaune, Journ. Asiat. 1843. 
The reader will have to refer to Mr. Pumpelly’s volume for these maps. 
~ 
