THE INUNDATIONS IN CHINA.

Waikato Times, Volume XXX, Issue 2447, 17 March 1888, Page 2 (Supplement)

THE INUNDATIONS IN CHINA.

It i! hardiy possible for Europeans to i-<•: 11 i, or •■veil to comw<iv(\ a disaster which conn:-; il■' victims literally by million-". Yet- this is what has actually happened through tho overflow of the Hoang 110. Twice in the last lOywars tho river Thri-s, iu Hungary, hns burst, through its artificial banks and spread devastation far and wido in I lu> neighbourhood of Hzegeilin. But the mischief wrought on each occasion, though sutlicieut to excite a thrill of ipa siuu throughout Europe, was positively in>ign(ieaiit by tho side of the calamity now reported from China. Tho Hoang Ho, or Yellow River, has always had an evil reputation. It is known, not; undeservedly, as " China's sorrow." According to Chine-o records, it has changed its course no fewer than nine times within the last 2300 years. Its roureo is iu the mountains of Tibet, and in its middle course if descends with great rapidity from the Mongolian plateau and runs for many liure (red of miles through the " loess," or yellow earth of China, which is very loose, and friable, and, being carried away iu enormous quantities by tho rapid stream, is gradually deposited ill such a manner as to cause frequent changes in the main course of the river. At Kaifeng, the capital of tho inland province of ilonan, the Jloang Ho enters upon tho great eastern plain of China, and it is between this point and the sea. that the great clmngcs in its course have taken place. North-eastward of the province of Honan the province of Shantung juts out into the Yellow Sea, enclosing the Gulf of Pechili with a largo promontory, not altogether dissimilar in size and configuration to Scotland north of the Firth, and Clyde. Tho direction of tho promontory is different, being to tho cast, mid not to tho north, but, the resemblance of its external outlino is sufficiently exact, for the purpose of a rough comparison. For .500 3'ears prior to 18-52 tho river ran southwards from Kaifong, and entered tho Yellow Sea to tho south 'of tho Shantug promontory described above. But in 1852 it burst. its northern bank in tho neighbourhood of Kaifeng, arid out a new bed for itself through tho northern part, of Shant.ug into the Gulf of Pechili. The now and tho old mouths of tho river, after the inundation of 18-52 and the change of course resulting from it, were about as far apart as Newcastle is from Kxcter. Tho intervening country is low lying and Hat, and the volume of water brought, down by tho Hoang Ho is far greater than that of even the largest rivers of Europe. Wo can form aomo conception of tho change thus wrought by supposing that a river far greater in volume than tho Rhino had suddenly changed its course at Mayoucc so as to empty itself into the .Baltic instead of the North Soa. A change such as this was again reversed in the autumn of last year. Soptember had been unusually wot and stormy ; the heavy rains had swelled the river, and rendered its artificial embankments unequal to tho task of resisting the pressure of the swollen stream. Some 40 miles west of Kaifeng, whore tho river is half a mile broad, a breach occurred in the southern embankment. Tho force of the stream was aided by a strong westerly wind, and when once tho embankment had given v/ay all o!l'orts to repair the breach were unavailing. It is easy to understand this, for there is nothing so disintegrating as flowing water. For some little time the overflow was comparatively slight, and the main body of the stream continued to follow its own channel. But the sides of tho breach rapidly crumbled in, and the overflow continued to increase, until tho gap was widened to a breadth of 1200 yards, and tho whole volume of the river began to flow through it. At first the overflow confined itself to tho channel of the Lu-Cnia River, but this was soon obliterated, and tho flood spread far and wide. A hundred villages were swallowed up entirely in the district of Chiingmou and the lauds of MOO more were inundated. At a further point in the course of the inundation stood the town of Chuhsion Chen, one of the principal trading centres of China, and it was feared at one time that it would be entirely destroyed ; but, fortunately, being on higher ground, it escaped with tho loss of a few suburbs. It would be impossible to give a. more vivid conception of the appalling extent of the calamity. That it should be a matter of congratulation that a town had escaped with tho loss of a few snbburbs is as though one should say " London is safe, but llampstead, iJighgato, Croydon, Wandsworth, Wimbledon and Ealing are destroyed." But the destruction did not even end hero. Seventy miles duo south of Kaifeng the inundation, so far from expending itself, had increased largely in extent and depth through tho contributions of smaller rivers, and carried devastation and total destruction into a low-lying and fertile district so densely populated that it is calculated that no fewer than 1500 villages were submerged within an area of some :10 miles squire. The flood spread ultimately to the valley of the Ifuai River, and for hundreds of miles along tho cour.se of this river to the. s"a the destruction of life and property seems to 'nave been literally incalculable. The number of persons drowned in l.fouan, can never be reckoned with any approach to accuracy, and can hardly even bo guessed. Hazarding a conjecture, it cannot well be less than 1,000,000, and probably is not. -o high .-is two. Still the European iu i'ekiu, who, by his relations with the Chimin I liivniiinit is in a position to be better infoMu' ii than anyone el-e. ills put the nu infoer ■'' ,',01)0,000. Tie- I) ■!u., r e ;iIo!,o :itl'->n!- e parallel to this appalling c o i.-trophe, and the horror of i; i. iu'-re i-rd by the i'aef, that the last gi-eii iaun 1.-ni ai of the Hoang Ho, which uee it -Ted within living memory, can ii.ucbv have been less destructive. The 10.-s of life, enormous as it seems to have boon, is not even the worst part of tho disaster. Death itself would be a preferable fa'.e to that of the survivors, who, deprived of homo, sustenance, and clothing, have had to i'aco tho rigors of a winter without shelter and the prospect of a future without lvsounai or occupation. Famine has followed flood iu many districts, and the wretched peasants have not only lost their houses but their last year's crops and the seed for their next year's sowing.—Times.