Abstract
I READ with great interest the paper on the Yang-tse, &c., in NATURE, vol. xxii. p. 486. It seems to me that Mr. Guppy has underestimated the quantity of water and sediment in these rivers. As to the Yang-tse, this arises from the year 1877 being one of the driest in Western and Central China generally, and thus the summer flood must have been one of the lowest on record. Besides what we know of the character of the season, an indirect proof of this can be had by comparing the rate of discharge in April and at the time of highest flood, as given by Mr. Guppy, with what is said by Mr. Oxenham, in his paper on the inundations of the Yang-tse.1 According to the latter the rise of water in April is not very large, the river not yet inundating its banks, and being thirty feet below the summer level. Thus in an average year the discharge in April would by far not equal half of that of August, as found by Mr. Guppy, but more probably be even below one-fifth of that of flood-time.
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WOEIKOF, A. The Yang-tse, the Yellow River, and the Pei-ho. Nature 23, 9 (1880). https://doi.org/10.1038/023009a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/023009a0
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