In 1851, the Hwang-Ho burst its northern embankment nearly 30 miles east of Kai-fung fu; the floods of the two following years enlarged the breach; and in 1853 the river, after six centuries, resumed the ancient direction of its discharge into the Gulf of Chih-li. Soon after leaving its late channel, it at present spreads, without defined banks, over the very low lands of South-Western Shan-tung, till it reaches the Great Canal, and then enters the Ta-t’sing channel, passing north of T’si-nan to the sea. The old channel crossed by Polo in the present journey is quite deserted. The greater part of the bed is there cultivated; it is dotted with numerous villages; and the vast trading town of Tsing-kiang pu was in 1868 extending so rapidly from the southern bank that a traveller in that year says he expected that in two years it would reach the northern bank. The same change has destroyed the Grand Canal as a navigable channel for many miles south of Lin-t’sing chau. (_J. R. G. S._ XXVIII. 294–295; _Escayrac de Lauture, Mém. sur la Chine; Cathay_, p. 125; _Reports of Journeys in China_, etc. [by Consuls Alabaster, Oxenham, etc., Parl. Blue Book], 1869, pp. 4–5, 14; _Mr. Elias_ in _J. R. G. S._ XL. p. 1 _seqq._) [Since the exploration of the Hwang-Ho in 1868 by Mr. Ney Elias and by Mr. H. G. Hollingworth, an inspection of this river was made in 1889 and a report published in 1891 by the Dutch Engineers J. G. W. Fijnje van Salverda, Captain P. G. van Schermbeek and A. Visser, for the improvement of the Yellow River.—H. C.] NOTE 3.—Coiganju will be noticed below. _Caiju_ does not seem to be traceable, having probably been carried away by the changes in the river. But it would seem to have been at the mouth of the canal on the north side of the Hwang-Ho, and the name is the same as that given below (ch. lxxii.) to the town (_Kwachau_) occupying the corresponding position on the Kiang. “Khatai,” says Rashiduddin, “is bounded on one side by the country of Máchín, which the Chinese call MANZI.... In the Indian language Southern China is called Mahá-chín, _i.e._ ‘Great China,’ and hence we derive the word _Machin_. The Mongols call the same country _Nangiass_. It is separated from Khatai by the river called KARAMORAN, which comes from the mountains of Tibet and Kashmir, and which is never fordable. The capital of this kingdom is the city of _Khingsai_, which is forty days’ journey from Khanbalik.” (_Quat. Rashid._, xci.–xciii.)