f that the foreign traces were
obliterated. Indeed, if that belief were true, the Mongol Palace must have
been very much out of the axis of the City of Kublai, which is in the
highest degree improbable. The _Bulletin de la Soc. de Geographie_ for
September 1873, contains a paper on Peking by the physician to the French
Embassy there. Whatever may be the worth of the meteorological and
hygienic details in that paper, I am bound to say that the historical and
topographical part is so inaccurate as to be of no value.

NOTE 14.--For son, read grandson. But the G. T. actually names the
Emperor's son Chingkim, whose death our traveller has himself already
mentioned.

[Illustration: Yuan ch'eng]

NOTE 15.--["Marco Polo's bridge, crossing the lake from one side to the
other, must be identified with the wooden bridge mentioned in the _Ch'ue
keng lu_. The present marble bridge spanning the lake was only built in
1392." "A marble bridge connects this island (an islet with the hall _I-
t'ien tien_) with the _Wan-sui shan_. Another bridge, made of wood, 120
_ch'i_ long and 22 broad, leads eastward to the wall of the Imperial
Palace. A third bridge, a wooden draw-bridge 470 _ch'i_ long, stretches to
the west over the lake to its western border, where the palace _Hing-sheng
kung_ [built in 1308] stands." (_Bretschneider_, _Peking_, 36.)--H. C.]

[1] Some years ago, in Calcutta, I learned that a large store of charcoal
existed under the soil of Fort William, deposited there, I believe, in
the early days of that fortress.

["The _Jihia_ says that the name of _Mei shan_ (Coal hill) was given
to it from the stock of coal buried at its foot, as a provision in
case of siege." (_Bretschneider, Peking_, 38.)--H. C.]

CHAPTER XI.

CONCERNING THE CITY OF CAMBALUC.

Now there was on that spot in old times a great and noble city called
CAMBALUC, which is as much as to say in our tongue "The city of the
Emperor."[NOTE 1] But the Great Kaan was informed by his Astrologers that
this city would prove rebellious, and raise great disorders against his
imperial authority. So he caused the present city to be built close beside
the old one, with only a river between them.[NOTE 2] And he caused the
people of the old city to be removed to the new town that he had founded;
and this is called TAIDU. [However, he allowed a portion of the people
which he did not suspect to remain in the old city, because the new one
could