Geological researches in China, Mongolia, and Japan, during the years 1862-1865.

46 GEOLOGICAL RESEARCHES IN
CHAPTER V.1
THE DELTA-PLAIN, AND THE HISTORICAL CHANGES IN THE
COURSE OF THE YELLOW RIVER.
THE extent of the great plain of Eastern China is pretty well known from native
and Jesuit authorities. It lies in a semicircle around the mountainous peninsula of
Shantung. Its outer limit, as approximately given on the Jesuit map, begins in
the department of Yungping (fu), and, running west, keeps south of the Great
Wall till Changping (chau) N. W. of Peking. Thence, remaining east of the
southern branch of the Great Wall, it follows a general S. S. W. course, passing
westward of Chingting (fu) and Kwangping (fu), till it reaches the upper waters
of the Wei river. Here it turns westward into Hwaiking (fu), and crosses the
Yellow river in that department.
From the right bank of this river it trends a little east of south, passing west of
Jiining (fu) (Honan), and then turning eastward it continues south of Kwang (chau)
and north of Luhngan (chau) in Luchau (fu). Here an arm of the plain, in which
lies the Tsau lake, stretches southward from the Hwai river to the Yangtse, and
continues eastward on the right side of this river, occupying the region between
the river and Hangchau bay. A hilly region, in the centre of which is Nanking,
rises, like a large island from the plain, to the north of this arm.
The Shantung boundary of the plain begins at Laichau (fu), and after describing
a great bow to the south it turns west at Shukwang (hien), and running thence to
Changtsing (hien), in Tsinan (fu), it turns to the south and around to the southeast.
Keeping this course it remains nearly parallel to the Imperial canal till the Kiangsu
frontier, which it follows to the sea.
The greater part of the area included within these limits is a plain which seems
to descend very gently toward the sea, and to be very generally below the high
water level of the Hwang Ho. It is the delta of the Hwang Ho, and in part also
of the Yangtse Kiang, and is remarkable for its semi-annular shape, half inclosing,
as it does, the mountain-mass of Shantung.
The city of Peking stands on a raised border of loam, sand, clay, and gravel,
which forms the northwestern skirt of the delta-lowlands, and seems to extend
southward fringing the mountains along its western side. The name of the Talo
lake (Ta great, and lo plateau or raised plain) seems to refer to such a border, and
See Maps I-X, on Plates 4 and 5.