Even at an altitude of 5,000 feet above sea level where 1 am writing, the temperature is up to 78 degrees or "summer heat," as the thermometer tells me. So I take it it is time to cool ourselves with the thought of our beautiful Yellow River in the winter time, and its gleaming white ice pridyes.
Hundreds of years ago, the river was the barrier between Chinese and Tartar, but for various reasons the Chinese colonists did not find the river to be a sufficient protection against the predatory Tartar tribes, and built themselves a wall—now regarded as a branch of the Great, Wall—that may still be seen running along the south bank of tha river. But gradually as Chinese influence extended north: westwards the stream came to be mote regarded as an obstacle to the spread of civilization than a protection, so bridges were made at two points—one where the Yellow River bursts through the Kansu Hills into the Mongolian desert, and the other at Lanchow, The former bridge is long ago" gone, hut it is said to have been a suspension bridge, and the buttresses at each end are still clearly seen. The latter was a bridge of boats, and regarded with much satisfaction by the people, but liable to be washed away by summer floods. It has recently been re placed by an iron bridge, five spans long, from America, which is one of the chief wonders of Lanchow to the country people throughout the province.
Wues tae Icn Comes.
But apart from these to bridges, the river has been crossed on foot from time immemorial every winter for two or three months on the ice. Not that the ice bridge forms at every part of the river's course. Towards the end of November, soft enowlike pieces of ice form in' the river, and rapidly increase in number, floating downwards each day so'that in the morning the water is studded with these white ratches, though by afternoon the sun may have melted them so that the river'is once more' a uniform dark green. But day by day through December the ice floes crease, until about Christmas in some sheltered bend where the water flows slowly they congeal to form a bridge of ice.
Gradually from that point upstream the floes are packed in tightly and the river for much of its length by the middle of January shows one consistent frozen surface. At first it is very rough. Hummocks of ice, broken cakes of ice set on edge, hollows where water filter in and freezes inches thick in a few hours, are everywhere. Gradually all is levelled out—whether by subsidence or pressure from the waters below I do not
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.