. The story of Marco Polo . ent is sostrong that they could not make head in any other the tow-line, which is some three hundred paces inlength, is made of nothing but cane. Tis in this way:they have those great canes of which I told you beforethat they are some fifteen paces in length ; these they takeand split from end to end into many slender strips, andthen they twist these strips together so as to make a ropeof any length they please. And the ropes so made arestronger than if they were made of hemp. There are at many places on this river hills and rockyeminences on which the id
. The story of Marco Polo . ent is sostrong that they could not make head in any other the tow-line, which is some three hundred paces inlength, is made of nothing but cane. Tis in this way:they have those great canes of which I told you beforethat they are some fifteen paces in length ; these they takeand split from end to end into many slender strips, andthen they twist these strips together so as to make a ropeof any length they please. And the ropes so made arestronger than if they were made of hemp. There are at many places on this river hills and rockyeminences on which the idol-monasteries and other edificesare built, and you find on its shores a constant successionof villages and inhabited places. There is very little exaggeration in this twelve thousand cantars we should understandthat the traveller refers to a weight equal to a littlemore than five hundred tons, which is a large idol-monasteries of Marco Polo still stand onthe rocky islets of the Yang-tse-Kiang; they are. AN ISLAND MONASTERY. XIX.] THE CITY OF HEAVEN. 203 Buddhist monasteries, and are known as OrphanRock, Golden Island, and Silver Island. And theyare very picturesque features of the river scenery. At the beginning of this chapter Marco has toldus about the conquest of the province of Manzi, withthe surrender of Kinsay, its capital: he now describesKinsay itself—the name means The City ofHeaven —which, he says, was beyond dispute thefinest and the noblest in the world. First and foremost, the city is so great that it hath anhundred miles of compass. And there are in it twelvethousand bridges of stone, for the most part so lofty that agreat fleet could pass beneath them. And let no manmarvel that there are so many bridges, for you see that thewhole city stands as it were in the water and surroundedby water, so that a great many bridges are required togive free passage about it. And though the bridges be sohigh, the approaches are so well contrived that car
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Keywords: ., bo, bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubjectvoyagesandtravels
