The Picture In Ramusio, Taken As A Whole, Is So Much More Brilliant,
Interesting, And Complete Than In The Older Texts, That I Thought Of
Substituting It Entirely For The Other.
But so much doubt and difficulty
hangs over some passages of the Ramusian version that I could not
satisfy myself of the propriety of this, though I feel that the
dismemberment inflicted on that version is also objectionable.
NOTE 2. - The tides in the Hang-chau estuary are now so furious, entering
in the form of a bore, and running sometimes, by Admiral Collinson's
measurement, 11-1/2 knots, that it has been necessary to close by weirs
the communication which formerly existed between the River Tsien-tang on
the one side and the Lake Si-hu and internal waters of the district on the
other. Thus all cargoes are passed through the small city canal in barges,
and are subject to transhipment at the river-bank, and at the great canal
terminus outside the north gate, respectively. Mr. Kingsmill, to whose
notices I am indebted for part of this information, is, however, mistaken
in supposing that in Polo's time the tide stopped some 20 miles below the
city. We have seen (note 6, ch. lxv. supra) that the tide in the river
before Kinsay was the object which first attracted the attention of Bayan,
after his triumphant entrance into the city. The tides reach Fuyang, 20
miles higher. (N. and Q., China and Japan, vol. I. p. 53; Mid.
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