they lack in number, for they cross canals as big as the Tigris!  Marsden aptly quotes in reference to this point excessively loose and discrepant statements from modern authors as to the number of bridges in Venice.  The great height of the arches of the canal bridges in this part of China is especially noticed by travellers.  Barrow, quoted by Marsden, says:  “Some have the piers of such an extraordinary height that the largest vessels of 200 tons sail under them without striking their masts.”

[Illustration:  Plan of the Imperial City of Hangchow in the 13th Century.  (From the Notes of the Right Rev. G.E.  Moule.)]

Mr. Moule has added up the lists of bridges in the whole department (or Fu) and found them to amount to 848, and many of these even are now unknown, their approximate sites being given from ancient topographies.  The number represented in a large modern map of the city, which I owe to Mr. Moule’s kindness, is III.

NOTE 3.—­Though Rubruquis (p. 292) says much the same thing, there is little trace of such an ordinance in modern China.  Pere Parrenin observes:  “As to the hereditary perpetuation of trades, it has never existed in China.  On the contrary, very few Chinese will learn the trade of their fathers; and it is only necessity that ever constrains them to do so.” (Lett.  Edif. XXIV. 40.) Mr. Moule remarks, however, that P. Parrenin is a little too absolute.  Certain trades do run in families, even of the free classes of Chinese, not to mention the disfranchised boatmen, barbers, chair-coolies, etc.  But, except in the latter cases, there is no compulsion, though the Sacred Edict goes to encourage the perpetuation of the family calling.

NOTE 4.—­This sheet of water is the celebrated SI-HU, or “Western Lake,” the fame of which had reached Abulfeda, and which has raised the enthusiasm even of modern travellers, such as Barrow and Van Braam.  The latter speaks of three islands (and this the Chinese maps confirm), on each of which were several villas, and of causeways across the lake, paved and bordered with trees, and provided with numerous bridges for the passage of boats.  Barrow gives a bright description of the lake, with its thousands of gay, gilt, and painted pleasure boats, its margins studded with light and fanciful buildings, its gardens of choice flowering shrubs, its monuments, and beautiful variety of scenery.  None surpasses that of Martini, whom it is always pleasant to quote, but here he is too lengthy.  The most recent description that I have met with is that of Mr. C. Gardner, and it is as enthusiastic as any.  It concludes:  “Even to us foreigners ... the spot is one of peculiar attraction, but to the Chinese it is as a paradise.”  The Emperor K’ien Lung had erected a palace on one of the islands in the lake; it was ruined by the T’ai-P’ings.  Many of the constructions about the lake date from the flourishing days of the T’ang Dynasty, the 7th and 8th centuries.