eir own sufferings in respiration was caused by some pernicious
exhalation.

Major Montgomerie, R.E., of the Indian Survey, who has probably passed
more time nearer the heavens than any man living, sends me the following
note on this passage: "What Marco Polo says as to fire at great altitudes
not cooking so effectually as usual is perfectly correct as far as
anything _boiled_ is concerned, but I doubt if it is as to anything
_roasted_. The want of brightness in a fire at great altitudes is, I
think, altogether attributable to the poorness of the fuel, which consists
of either small sticks or bits of roots, or of _argols_ of dung, all of
which give out a good deal of smoke, more especially the latter if not
quite dry; but I have often seen a capital blaze made with the argols when
perfectly dry. As to cooking, we found that rice, _dal_, and potatoes
would never soften properly, no matter how long they were boiled. This, of
course, was due to the boiling-point being only from 170 deg. to 180 deg.. Our
tea, moreover, suffered from the same cause, and was never good when we
were over 15,000 feet. This was very marked. Some of my natives made
dreadful complaints about the rice and dal that they got from the
village-heads in the valleys, and vowed that they only gave them what was
very old and hard, as they could not soften it!"

[Illustration: MARCO POLO'S ITINERARIES
No. III
Regions on and near the Upper Oxus]

NOTE 3.--Bolor is a subject which it would take several pages to discuss
with fulness, and I must refer for such fuller discussion to a paper in
the _J. R. G. S._ vol. xlii. p. 473.

The name _Bolor_ is very old, occurring in Hiuen Tsang's Travels (7th
century), and in still older Chinese works of like character. General
Cunningham has told us that Balti is still termed _Balor_ by the Dards of
Gilghit; and Mr. Shaw, that _Palor_ is an old name still sometimes used by
the Kirghiz for the upper part of Chitral. The indications of Hiuen Tsang
are in accordance with General Cunningham's information; and the fact that
Chitral is described under the name of Bolor in Chinese works of the last
century entirely justifies that of Mr. Shaw. A Pushtu poem of the 17th
century, translated by Major Raverty, assigns the mountains of
_Bilaur_-istan, as the northern boundary of Swat. The collation of these
indications shows that the term Bolor must have been applied somewhat
extensively to the high regions adjoining the southern