he "Marble Palace" of which Polo speaks. This
forms a square of about 2 _li_ (2/3 of a mile) to the side, and has three
gates--south, east, and west, of which the southern one still stands
intact, a perfect arch, 20 ft. high and 12 ft. wide. The outer wall forms
a square of 4 _li_ (1-1/3 mile) to the side, and has six gates. The
foundations of temples and palace-buildings can be traced, and both
enclosures are abundantly strewn with blocks of marble and fragments of
lions, dragons, and other sculptures, testifying to the former existence
of a flourishing city, but exhibiting now scarcely one stone upon another.
A broken memorial tablet was found, half buried in the ground, within the
north-east angle of the outer rampart, bearing an inscription in an
antique form of the Chinese character, which proves it to have been
erected by Kublai, in honour of a Buddhist ecclesiastic called Yun-Hien.
Yun-Hien was the abbot of one of those great minsters and abbeys of
_Bacsis_, of which Marco speaks, and the exact date (no longer visible) of
the monument was equivalent to A.D. 1288.[2]

[Illustration: Heading In the Old Chinese Seal-Character, of an
INSCRIPTION on a Memorial raised by KUBLAI-KAAN to a Buddhist Ecclesiastic
in the vicinity of his SUMMER-PALACE at SHANG-TU in Mongolia. Reduced from
a facsimile obtained on the spot by Dr. _S. W. Bushell_, 1872. (About one-
Forth the Length and Breadth of Original.)]

This city occupies the south-east angle of a more extensive enclosure,
bounded by what is now a grassy mound, and embracing, on Dr. Bushell's
estimate, about 5 square miles. Further knowledge may explain the
discrepancy from Marco's dimension, but this must be the park of which he
speaks.[3] The woods and fountains have disappeared, like the temples and
palaces; all is dreary and desolate, though still abounding in the game
which was one of Kublai's attractions to the spot. A small monastery,
occupied by six or seven wretched Lamas, is the only building that remains
in the vicinity. The river Shangtu, which lower down becomes the Lan [or
Loan]-Ho, was formerly navigated from the sea up to this place by flat
grain-boats.

[Mgr. de Harlez gave in the _T'oung Pao_ (x. p. 73) an inscription in
_Chuen_ character on a _stele_ found in the ruins of Shangtu, and built by
an officer with the permission of the Emperor; it is probably a token of
imperial favour; the inscription means: _Great Longevity_.--H. C.]

In the wail which