from Peking to examine into the affair, and this finally decided that the territory of the Ordos must be considered to be the same as before, i.e. to extend to the desiccated river bed. Even at the present day parts of the same koshungs (banners) of Ordos lie on both banks of the Hoang-ho, another proof that the River entered its new channel after the subdivision of the Ordos country into the present koshungs.
The valley of the Hoang-ho, in that part of its course which we are describing, is from twenty to forty miles broad, and of an alluvial clayey soil.[1] On the northern side of the river the valley widens considerably to the west of the Munni-ula mountains, while its southern shore is narrowed by the sands of Kuzupchi, which approach close to the river.
The northern side of the valley, with the exception of a narrow strip of land near the hills, where the soil is sandy and stony, is well adapted for cultivation, and is thickly covered with Chinese villages. The same remark applies to the southern bank of the River, from the place[2] where we crossed almost to the meridian of the western corner of the Munni-ula. This part of the valley is everywhere covered with grass land, intersected by a few streams, and in
- ↑ We sometimes arrived at pure sand beneath a surface stratum of clay not exceeding two or three feet in thickness. But the alluvial deposit near the river must be considerably more, because the above result was obtained near the sands of Kuzupchi, therefore quite at the verge of the valley of the Hoang-ho.
- ↑ It should be mentioned that the fruitful cultivated valley on the southern shore of the Hoang-ho extends much further eastwards than the point of our crossing that river.
