Dongting

— The Tung-ting-hoo, in Hoonan, is said to be 220 miles in circumference. It receives the waters of several southern rivers, which, rising in Kwangse and Kweichow, find their way through this lake to the Yang-tsze-keang. From the eastern side of the Tung-ting-hoo to the city of Woo-chang-Foo, over an area of about 200 miles east and west, by 80 north and south, the course of the Yang-tsze-keang lies between a great number of lakes almost touching one another; which circumstance gives to the provinces Hoopih and Hoonan their names, north and south of the lakes.