Directory_and_Chronicle_1850 — Page 538

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Topography of the Yellow River.

SEP.

letter we learn that the words Alotan-kouolo mean "river of yellow metal," and that the waters of this stream possess a yellow tinge. The mountain from which this river proceeds is called, in full, Alotən Katasu-káulau, meaning “the golden rock of the North star;

" this rock is about a hundred feet high, of a yellow color intermixed with red veins, and can be seen from afar, thus serving a purpose like the north star. On the top of this rock is a small pool of gushing springs, whose waters flow down its sides, and unite to form the R. Alotan.

The Chinese geographers formerly supposed that the headwaters of the Yellow river were fed from Lop-nor,-the outlet of that lake running under ground more than 500 miles through the intervening desert, till it reäppeared in this place; but the expedition sent by Kublai khan about A.D. 1280, dissipated this notion. The waters of the Singsuh hái unite as they flow eastward into two lakes called Dzaring and Oring, which are usually, from their size, regarded as the sources of the Yellow river; they are less than a hundred miles north of the upper branches of the Yángtsz', and not half that distance south of Ala-nor, a lake whose outlet flows north- west into the R. Kedurku, and is lost in the Desert. High mountains encircle these two lakes, however, and completely shut them off, leaving only an outlet on the east, at which the Yellow river begins its long course to the ocean. This course can conveniently be divided into an Upper, Middle, and Lower courses, the first reaching from Lake Oring to Lánchau fú, about 700 miles; the Middle from that city to the sharp bend in the S.W. corner of Shánsí, about 1130 miles; and the Lower from thence to the ocean, about (550 miles.

Upper Course. Lake Oring lies in lat. 34° 30 N., and between long. 98° and 99° E.; it receives two tributaries from the south, the Tarkun and Olokú, and the outlet is doubtless a good sized river. The plain around it is occupied by Mongolian shepherds, who pasture their flocks here in summer, and return to Koko-nor in winter. The stream which connects it with Lake Dzaring is called Chih-pien ho

(Red-bank river), but both lakes may be considered as one sheet of water with the Sea of Constellations, the whole area being in fact one large swampy basin. As the Yellow river issues from Lake Oring, it gradually turns south and east, running between

two high spurs of the Bayankara, called Alakshar

爾

or Chishi 積石

on the north, and Chochaksin-tunla

克阡通拉 on the south.

on the south. After flowing about 190 miles, it is

forced northwest by the Min Mts.

in the northwest of Sz'-