The channels marked in the map on the right bank of the northern bend of the River (west of the Munni-ula) have ceased to exist, owing to the change in its course, which has deviated 33 miles to the south of the former channel. The old channel, called Ulan-khatun by the Mongols, is well preserved, as we saw on our return journey from Ala-shan to Peking. The Mongols told us most positively that there were two channels between the old bed and present channel of the River, which continue to the western extremity of the Munni-ula, where some other branches again divide from the River. In all probability these two channels are those which some maps show as on the south side of the Hoang-ho. But in fact the main stream now flows in the third, i.e. the southernmost of the three.
This important change in the course of the River probably occurred at no very remote period. In support of this presumption I should mention that the Ordos country is reckoned to extend, beyond the present course of the River, as far as the old channel. There is a tradition among the inhabitants that one year the Hoang-ho, after unusually heavy summer rains, changed its former for a more southerly direction, when a dispute arose between the Urutes[1] and the Ordos about the boundaries of their respective territories. A commission was sent
- ↑ The Úrút or Orat form a tribe of three banners on the north of the Hoang-ho, about 120 miles west of Kuku-khoto. (See Timk. ii. 263.) — Y.
