Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1888-01-09
FLOODS IN CHINA ABOUT
a STRANGE RIVER.


food upon the Hwang-Ho or Yellow river,
IN China. That news was incomplete, as
first accounts of great disasters in remote
parts usually are. On Saturday the Rec
oRD-UNIoN gave the latest or particular
accounts Of the event, with details as gath
cred by the London Standards correspond
ent, and telegraphed Friday morning, but
too late for our publication that morning.
An envious contemporary thereupon ex-
poses its narrow conception of the intelli-
gence of news readers by declaring that
the second publication was stale news, a
repetition of that ii had given weeks ago.
The facts disclose the untruth and Stiffness
of the statement, and the news value of
the full details referred to emphasizes the
importance of the second account
The recital by the correspondent of the
Standard shows that the results of the
overflow were very disastrous; that hun
dreds Of thousands of lives were lost by
the inundation; that indeed an area of
country is flooded larger than Wales and
more thickly populated than Ireland, and
that all the inhabitants have either been
drowned or have fed from the district.
The money value of the loss Of property
is simply incalculable as yet.
Such foundations in the valley of the
Hwang-Ho have been frequent during some
thousands of years, and these are due to
the engineering incapacity of the Chinese
and the peculiarly negligent habits of
those having charge of public works in
China. The Hwang-Ho rises in Northern
Thibet, in latitude $50 north and longi-
tude go east The Chinese long held the
river entitled to special reverence, but
whether it is identical with one of the
sacred rivers of the world, is matter not
agreed upon by scholars. Latterly the
Chinese have come, says Wilson, to regard
the stream as curse and source of sor-
row.
From the lakeletS its course is at first
south, then west, then north and northeast
for 700 miles, till it reaches the "Great
Wal" which it follows northwardly 400
miles. 1t then crosses the Wall, bends
north and east around the country of the
Ortous Mongols and impinges against a
spur of the Peh-ling mountains turns
south and runs 500 miles and more be-
tween the provinces of Shensi and Shansi
In this part of its course it traverses the
lower plains and becomes yellow in color.
Over 1900 miles from its source it receives
the greatest affluent, the Wei, and then
flows eastward 200 miles to the vicinity of
the large city of Kai-fung-fu, the capital of
Honan. 1t was near this city, SAYS the
Standards correspondent, that the inunda-
ton began. From this city it flows to the
Gulf of Pechili, but this part of its course
is really its delta, it having had many
channels to the sea. Within Chinese his
tory it has six times changed its bed, and
doubtless did so many times more in pre-
historic ages.
Here is tortuous river OF 300 miles
through an arid and treeless region, and
which is of necessity restrained over q
large part of its course by artificial banks
Because it so subjects the country to mum
dation it has recently dawned upon the
Chinese that tree-planting upon this trean
and its catchment area must be engaged in
statement that has been made by several
recent visitors to the district. The river,
says General James Harrison Wilson. u.
S. A, whose work upon China is Just from
press, and which we adopt as the best pub
ished recent account, in the dry season.
two-thirds of the year, carries but small
volume of water, compared with our Mis-
sissippi. 1t is shallow and narrow until it
enters the delta, and has so great de-
clivity, that above the delta it is unfit for
navigation. 1t is full of rapids, and at
places its current is so swift that it can be
crossed only with much danger
The plains this river traverses in its
lower courses are level, and stretch AWAY
In either direction hundreds of miles
they are almost as level, says the General,
as flowing water In the rainy season the
character of the river suddenly changes.
Williams estimates its watershed ut AS
900 square miles, and it is almost entirely
bare of trees. Hence the rains on its
upper course run swiftly to the river,
which rises with great rapidity, and as the
banks are very low, artificial restraint is a
necessity. When there is heavy rain upon
the delta plains, with descending high
water from the table lands, the embank-
ments, which are invariably neglected,
give way in the weaker places, and whole
districts are thus suddenly inundated :
houses are melted down, crops DESTROYED,
and at times thousands Of people, with
all their tlocks, are drowned
From time immemorial, says General
Wilson, these embankments have been
under construction and repair and the
objects Of greatest soliciinde on the part es
local ane the Imperial Governments. With
the subsistence of the floods, however, "the
improvident or corrupt officials, and the
still more inprovident people, seem alike
to forget that the embankments will ever
be required again, or that there is any
necessity for loeking after or repairing
them"
Some of these restraining walls are con-
structed with great care, Others are poorly
built. Generally, they are placed from
one to two miles back FROM the river. and
are from u to IA feet high and 20 to 25
feet in width on top, ana have slopes of
two base to one perpendicular. Any vege-
tat'on that grows upon the slopes is scru-
pulously raked off and used for fuel; the
sops are used as roads, crossings are not