Yellow River: Facts on File

["Ricardo Duchesne" <rduchesn@xxxxxxxx>]

> You may know about this than I do, but the current would bring the
> silt down to the sea over time.  If it just remained at the bottom of
> the river, there would be no problem.

I was saying this is not the case because this river carries up to
40, even 60 perceny sediment by weight which is way more than
that of nay other river. As  I said, the land bordering the river and
the bed of the river has been raised higher and higher - Cressy
notes that the average level of the plain adjacent to the river has
risen up about 7 feet per century, while the bed of the river has
risen an additional three feet per century -  so that when the river
overflows again, the old dikes are overtopped, making it necessary
to build higher and higher dikes. This is a lock-in situation precisely
due to this: no amount of dyking provides a definite solution and
new hydraulic works must be built.