From a photograph kindly lent to the present Editor by
Count de SEMALLE.
South GATE of the "IMPERIAL CITY" at Peking. From an original sketch
belonging to the late Dr. W. Lockhart.
The BUGUT EAGLE. After Atkinson's Oriental and Western Siberia.
The TENTS of the EMPEROR K'ien-lung. From a drawing in the Staunton
Collection in the British Museum.
Plain of CAMBALUC; the City in the distance; from the hills on the
north-west. From a photograph. Borrowed from Dr. Rennie's Peking.
The Great TEMPLE OF HEAVEN at Peking. From Michie's Siberian Overland
Route.
MARBLE ARCHWAY erected under the MONGOL DYNASTY at Kiu-Yong Kwan in the
Nan-k'au Pass, N.W. of Peking. From a photograph in the possession of the
present Editor.
MARCO POLO AND HIS BOOK.
INTRODUCTORY NOTICES.
I. OBSCURITIES IN THE HISTORY OF HIS LIFE AND BOOK. RAMUSIO'S STATEMENTS.
[Illustration: Doorway of the House of Marco Polo in the Corte Sabbionera,
at Venice]
[Sidenote: Obscurities of Polo's Book, and personal History.]
1. With all the intrinsic interest of Marco Polo's Book it may perhaps be
doubted if it would have continued to exercise such fascination on many
minds through succesive generations were it not for the difficult
questions which it suggests. It is a great book of puzzles, whilst our
confidence in the man's veracity is such that we feel certain every puzzle
has a solution.
