AN INUNDATION IN CHINA.

Waikato Times, Volume 2611, Issue 2611, 6 April 1889, Page 1 (Supplement)

AN INUNDATION IN CHINA.

Thk first account of a European eye witness of the scene of the frightful inunda tion on the Yellow river, aud of the work undertaken there with a view to restoring the banks has lately appeared in an Eastern journal. The writer says that the gap in the bank through which the river now flows is visible several miles all the stream flowing out at right angles to its old bed. The latter is merely a succession of sand dunes greatly elevated against the present leval of the water. The original stream was here many miles in width, and in the bed are now thousands upon thousands of mat sheds iu which the labourers live. The general plan of the work is to run a strong bank 40ft or 50ft wide from each side of the present stream until the two meet in the middle, when the task will have been accomplished. To protect the new bank, flanks or wings have been thrown out to support it at the ends lest the current should carry itaway asithas done oucebefore. The whole country for many hundreds of acres resembles a gigantic nest of ants. Thousands of coolies are carrying and wheeling earth or rather sand, and in the streets between the mat sheds every variety of traffic is carried on The river poms through a gap about •100 ft wide at the rate of eight or nine miles au hour in a stream 100 ft deep, and huge whirlpools in the centre show the immense force of the volume of water. The plan of dealing with this torrent is to place bundles of stalks in the bed of sand dug down as low as practicable to weight them with a few stones, pile on sand, and proceed as before. Thousands upon thousands of tons of bricks are made at kilns in the neighbourhood, aud with these an attempt is being made to construct a wall to restrain the flood. But the writer thinks the whole undertaking fatuous ; the work cannot be done as the Chinese are attempting to do it. The misery produed by fc'ie inundations is said to pass all comprehension. It is believed that the Government is feeding 1,117,000 refugees, and that the loss of life, direct and indirect, has not been less than a million. The quantity of sand brought down by the river is incredible Looking eastward along the old bed, a,a far as the eye can reach, the whole horizon is one vast Sahara unrelieved by any oasis, and where the waters of the preset,t unui lation have subsided the sand can be seen overspreading the country in layers from Oft to 10ft in depth. Day after day the traveller journeys through saudy deserts caused by past indications where stuuted vegetation and wretched hovels attest the misery of such inhabitants as remain. The average width of territory permanently endangered by the river is 50 to 75 miles, but this does not include such inundations as the present, where h'i river s"pks new cha'"v;! a' ' cm* s instruction to regions hitherto exempt, the nom'si. Viilou the liv.r ceceu ,T y left is '20ft above the surrounding coutry, and is actually the only part of the region now secure from inundation. The villagers are now trying to bring patches of it under cultivation. Many junks are left stranded in t!w bed by 1 the disappearance of the river in another direction.