1850.
Topography of the Yellow River.
501
chuen, and takes a bold sweep as if it were returning to its sources, surrounding on three sides the eastern extremity of the Bayankara Mts. From Lake Oring to this turn, it receives nearly thirty small tributa- ries; the valley here is very narrow, some of the mountains rising in steep acclivities to the snow-line, and the whole of the region seems to be totally uninhabited.
After turning NW. and N., a number of rivulets swell the main trunk, until when it leaves Koko-nor and the defiles of its lofty moun- tains, and enters Kánsuh at Kweiteh-ting it has grown to be the largest river in this region. Up to this town its valley is very narrow, hardly wide enough even for a road in most places, and the few interval lands supply herbage for sheep and yaks, tended by tribes of Túrgouths, Hoshoits, and Khoits, who wander at pleasure over these wilds. These mountains also furnish the true rhubarb, which is collected near the confines of perpetual snow. The bed of the Yellow river itself is here probably not less than eight thousand feet above the sea. From Kweiteh in lat. 36° N., the river flows nearly east to the capital Lánchau fú passing by Pajenyunk
and Ho- chau-wei Y, and not far from Siunhwa ting on the south, its valley gradually widening and becoming less barren as it approaches Lánchau. Tribes of Mongols under the jurisdiction of the resident at Sining pasture their herds in this valley, and cross the ranges north- east of Kweiteh into the great basin of the Azure Sea. Some of the Mongolian towns along its banks are under the rule of local officers. Within fifty miles of Lánchan, four large affluents enter the Yellow
river; the Tatung大通 and Chwáng-liáng 莊浪 on the north, and the Táhiá★ and Táu ho on the south The princi-
大夏
H và pal branch of the Tátung rises northwest of the Azure Sea in the Kilien Mts., and collects the drainings of the region lying north and east of it, and joins the Yellow R. after a course of about 400 miles. Sining fu, the headquarters in this region of the Chinese authorities over the Mongols, lies on its main branch, the Hwang ho, in lat. 361° N., and long. 100° 48' E. Many towns and settlements are placed on the map in their valleys, showing that the soil is fertile, and the climate temperate. On the south, the R. Táu contributes the superfluous waters of a mountainous and wild country, almost as large as that drained by the Tátung; the towns of Min, T'áuchau, Tehtaú, Lint'au wei, and some others, lie near its banks, but the in- habitants are fewer in numbers than on the northern side. Between Hochau and Lánchou, and on to Chungwei in Shensí, the valley of the