The River is that which appears in the maps as the Hwan Ho, Hun-ho, or Yongting Ho, flowing about 7 miles west of Peking towards the south-east and joining the Pe-Ho at Tientsin; and the Bridge is that which has been known for ages as the Lu-kou-Kiao or Bridge of Lukou, adjoining the town which is called in the Russian map of Peking Feuchen, but in the official Chinese Atlas Kung-Keih-cheng. (See Map at ch. xi. of Bk.  II. in the first Volume.) ["Before arriving at the bridge the small walled city of Kung-ki cheng is passed.  This was founded in the first half of the 17th century.  The people generally call it Fei-ch’eng” (Bretschneider, Peking, p. 50.)—­H.C.] It is described both by Magaillans and Lecomte, with some curious discrepancies, whilst each affords particulars corroborative of Polo’s account of the character of the bridge.  The former calls it the finest bridge in China.  Lecomte’s account says the bridge was the finest he had yet seen.  “It is above 170 geometrical paces (850 feet) in length.  The arches are small, but the rails or side-walls are made of a hard whitish stone resembling marble.  These stones are more than 5 feet long, 3 feet high, and 7 or 8 inches thick; supported at each end by pilasters adorned with mouldings and bearing the figures of lions....  The bridge is paved with great flat stones, so well joined that it is even as a floor.”

Magaillans thinks Polo’s memory partially misled him, and that his description applies more correctly to another bridge on the same road, but some distance further west, over the Lieu-li Ho.  For the bridge over the Hwan Ho had really but thirteen arches, whereas that on the Lieu-li had, as Polo specifies, twenty-four.  The engraving which we give of the Lu-kou K’iao from a Chinese work confirms this statement, for it shows but thirteen arches.  And what Polo says of the navigation of the river is almost conclusive proof that Magaillans is right, and that our traveller’s memory confounded the two bridges.  For the navigation of the Hwan Ho, even when its channel is full, is said to be impracticable on account of rapids, whilst the Lieu-li Ho, or “Glass River,” is, as its name implies, smooth, and navigable, and it is largely navigated by boats from the coal-mines of Fang-shan.  The road crosses the latter about two leagues from Cho-chau.  (See next chapter.)

[Illustration:  Bridge of Lu-ku k’iao]

[The Rev. W.S.  Ament (M.  Polo in Cambaluc, p. 116-117) remarks regarding Yule’s quotation from Magaillans that “a glance at Chinese history would have explained to these gentlemen that there was no stone bridge over the Liu Li river till the days of Kia Tsing, the Ming Emperor, 1522 A.D., or more than one hundred and fifty years after Polo was dead.  Hence he could not have confounded bridges, one of which he never saw.  The Lu Kou Bridge was first constructed of stone by She Tsung, fourth Emperor of the Kin, in the period Ta Ting 1189 A.D.,