258 I ^i Through the Yang-tse Gorges 



as " Hen point.'' Below this, again, we have the wide plain, 

 of which Wu-hu forms the centre, the eastern outlet^f which 

 is through the gate of " the Pillars." We then come to 

 Nanking, to tlie south of which now stretches a large alluvial 

 plain, the lower portion of which is still, for a considerable 

 period of the year, below the level of the river, and which 

 apparently formerly, in connection with the Tai-Hu (" Great 

 Lake ") of Kiangnan, formed part of the ancient estuary of 

 the Yang-tse, at the time when the river here turned south- 

 ward and debouched into the Hang-chow Bay. At present 

 we find these ancient lakes practically filled up, being our- 

 selves only just in time to see the finishing touches given by 

 the annual summer floods to the land that now occupies 

 their site. Formerly the bulk of the sediment was arrested 

 in these lakes, and the turn of the delta had not yet 

 come. At the same time, however, we have no reason 

 to expect that, as the banks become thus rapidly raised, 

 the floods will soon cease altogether, natural as this result 

 would at first sight seem to be : for the bed of the 

 river must be rising simultaneously in the ratio of its 

 extension seawards, and thus higher banks are constantly 

 needed. 



Marco Polo, 600 years ago, in his chapter on the " Great 

 River Kian," says, " It is in some places ten miles wide, in 

 others eight, in others six, and it is more than 100 days' 

 journey in length from one end to the other, — it seems, 

 indeed, more like a sea than a river." Now if, as is 

 probable, Marco visited the river during the summer floods, 

 there is no exaggeration whatever in these statements, and 

 it is curious to find Colonel Yule criticizing this passage as 

 exaggerated, and giving as a probable explanation, the 

 suggestion that Marco's expressions about the river were 

 accompanied by a mental reference to the term "Dalai," 



