Evening star., 1935-02-03
BY FRITZ ZIELESCH.


of the lower Hwang-ho are
L continually faced by an alarm
ing menace. For there are
more reasons than one to believe that
the day is near when this great stream.
called in English the Yellow River. will
again change its course. During the
flood season this catastrophe may
occur at any moment.
Imagine that near Memphis the
mighty Mississippi should suddenly
leave its bed and, with disastrous
floods over wide areas, dig another
course across three States-Mississippi,
Alabama and Georgia-to the Savan-
nah River and through the latter's
present mouth, plunge into the At
lantic. That another day it suddenly
should change again, this time, per-
haps. taking the course Of the Ala
bama River. Still later it might re-
sumo its former way to the Gulf.
1t is difficult to imagine such an
occurrence. yet China has experienced
just such a catastrophe no less than
seven times within the last 1000 years.
Seven times the mighty Hwang-ho has
engulfed the wide plains, devastated
thousands Of square miles OF flourish
Ing soil and buried hundreds Of thou
sands Of persons under its infuriated,
silly floods. Since this occurred the
last time only 81 years have passed.
After the floods Of l494 the stream
mad taken its course into the Yellow
Sea about 230 miles north of Shang-
hal But in 1853, near Kai-feng, it
burst away at right angle toward
the northeast, dug a new bed. and
discharged turbulent yellow waters
into the Gulf of Pechili, almost 375
miles north of its former mouth.
Science Ponders Problem.
In the lonely Alpine village of Ober-
mach, German scientists today are
pondering over plans and calculations
trying to find out how this wayward
river in far-off China can be har-
messed. They are not content with
theories; they have the Hwang-ho in
front of their door, a model 45O feet
in length. Z feet in width at low water
and 80 feet at high water. Hardly
ever have scientists studied the posi-
bilities OF river regulation with a
model of such size.
The Bavarian Hwang-ho, however
is black, not a yellow water. II
pushes its way through coal dust-fol
comparison with the soil of the
Hwang-ho Basin has proved that Goa
dust. placed in the model river, act.
much like the material which cause.
those fatal floods of the Yellow River
that mysterious sand of China, tn,
loesS.
LoeSs is sand from the desert
ground. pulverized by the glaciers o.
primeval ages, carried by the Asiatit
winds over the continent, amassed ir
layers which in some parts have
reached a height Of dozens of feet
When Winter storms rush out of the
great Mongolian desert, sweep over
the former royal residence and darker
the otherwise stainless blue of Peiping
skies, the air is heavy with an all-per.
vading dust which finally settles to the
ground and covers the streets like q
thick, soft Oriental rug. That is the
loess.
Muddiest in the World.
But it is not the wind alone that
carries yellow sand toward the Yellow
Sea. The restless Hwang-ho is drag
ging it from the interior of China and
unloading it there. In water the
powdered desert sand is changing
into loamy mud. The river, the
muddiest of the world, has not the
power to wash this heavy burden into
the sea. So loess is constantly de-
posted on the rivers bottom, result
ing in a slow but steady rise of ar
inch or more annually. Finally
levees have to be built to keep the
river floods from inundating the farm
land. But the bottom continues tc
rise, and the levees have to be raised
In the course of time the rivers bot
tom becomes higher than the adjoin-
ing land.
Along the lower reaches of the
Hwang-hos present course, this process
which, obeying the ancient law of the
loeSS, has been going on since 1858, is
now again so advanced that the bot
tom of the river is more than a yard
above the level of adjacent regions
At hood-time the surface Of this DOW
erful river is about 20 feet above the
surrounding land!
Any other river has its bed more OF
less deeply cut into the ground Tht
Hwang-ho has none; loess forbids
LoeSs from below drives the river Out
of its course again and again. Thus
it has been throughout history Ap-
parently the experiences of this an
cient people with the Hwang-ho al
ready had been long and bitter in
2278 BIC. For even in those remote
days, according to accepted tradition
they had learned the basic principle.
of flood control. So perfect were the
works they executed that the giant
was tanned for the 1,700 years that