232 



THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



Photograph by C. K. Edmunds 



THE NECK-STOCK OR CANGUH WAS FORMERLY the instrument USED IN 

 PUNISHMENT FOR MINOR MISDEMEANORS 



Culprits were forced to stand day after day on a prominent thoroughfare with their names 

 and the nature of their offenses displayed on the heavy wooden yoke. 



If there were space, we would refer in 

 more detail to other evidences of the 

 change now under way in China, such 

 as the rise of militarism and the rapid 

 development of educational facilities, 

 perhaps the most important and signifi- 

 cant change of all. Tsinan boasts a large 

 and flourishing provincial college and 

 many lower schools. But the chief inter- 

 est of our journey lies outside Tsinan. 



CURBING "CHINA'S GREAT SORROW" 



( )nly six miles away runs the Yellow 

 River, known as "China's Great Sor- 

 row." because of the frequent changes of 

 its course and consequent flooding of 

 this the most densely populated region of 

 the whole country. 



The last serious break in the dikes oc- 

 curred in September, 1902, near Liu- 

 Wang-Chuang, and the illustrations on 

 pages 236-238 show the remarkable way 

 in which Chinese "engineers" effected its 



repair. The original breach of 1,500 

 yards was reduced by building out from 

 each side successive buttresses composed 

 of kaoliang stalks (Barbados millet) and 

 sacks of clay, each buttress being secured 

 to the previous one by ropes and piles. 

 The final opening of 55 feet was, after 

 two disastrous attempts, effectively closed 

 in March, 1903, by lowering a huge mat- 

 tress of kaoliang stalks and clay by 

 means of more than one hundred ropes, 

 each eight inches in circumference, which 

 at a given signal were let out one foot on 

 each side. 



The rush of water through the open- 

 ing was reduced by the construction of a 

 projecting groin on the upstream side, 

 and to prevent canting of the mattress, 

 due to the impact of the current, which 

 had frustrated the earlier attempts, it 

 was anchored to the opposite side of the 

 river by many 15-inch hawsers. 



The width of the river abreast of the 



