oT) 
ft. Pumpelly on the Delta-plain of the Yellow River. 223 
into petty states. In the latter case in the treaties bordering 
on the Hwang Ho, the clauses regarding the regulation of that 
river appear to have been the. most important and the most 
sacredly observed. 
tion of those who inhabit lands where the ae is ne 
are easily reache 
ithin the last fifteen years one of these great changes has 
taken place, apparently from the same cause and with the same 
effect as above indicated. Instead of emptying into the Hwang 
Hai, or Yellow Sea, the Hwang Ho now has its mouth in the 
wang Ho, : 
In 1863 the river had not yet determined a channel, but its 
waters were spread over large tracts of country, and the city 
of Wuting (fu), nearly sixty miles north of T'sinan (fu), was 
ost inaccessible, 
The present course of the Hwang Ho is indicated, so far as 
own, on Map No. 10. © ‘ 
ing to the great quantity of material brought down by 
this river, and to the absence of great oceanic currents, that 
might, if prestnt, interfere with its deposition, the delta is ra- 
pidly increasing in size, and the adjoining seas are becoming 
shallower, * 
Probably nowhere can the rate of growth of deltas be bet- 
ter studied than in China. Cities that were built on the delta 
plain of the Hwang Ho several thousand years since are sti 
* Barrow estimated the hourly discharge of sediment at 2,000,000 cubic feet. 
