[141] See Index for other references to Mr. Jackson. [142] Marco Polo describes very well how the bamboo in China is twisted or plaited into cordage. He says: “They have canes of the length of fifteen paces, which they split, in their whole length, into very thin pieces, and these, by twisting them together, they form into ropes three hundred paces long. So skilfully are they manufactured, that they are equal in strength to cordage made of hemp.” [143] I take this description from two photographs belonging to the Church Missionary Society. [144] On the 4th of August this important bridge was guarded by Territorials. [145] Not _all_ bridges should be military, of course, since those near a frontier may have to be destroyed at a moment’s notice in order to check the advance of a surprise attack. [Illustration: RAIN] APPENDICES APPENDIX I CHINESE GABLED BRIDGES Marco Polo found them in several places, particularly in Hang-cheu, the ancient capital of Southern China. This noble city has on one side the Si-hu, or western lake, and on the other is the vast river Tsien-tang-kiang, which at high tide is nearly four miles in width. Its waters are distributed by canals through every quarter of Hang-cheu, so that many bridges are necessary. Towards the end of the thirteenth century, when Marco Polo made visits to Hang-cheu (which he described as Kin-sai, or the “celestial city”), bridges over the canals were so frequent that popular opinion, glad to show off an Oriental exaggeration, declared their number to be twelve thousand, though a census had not been taken. “Those which are thrown over the principal canals,” says Polo, “and are connected with the main streets, have arches so high, and built with so much skill, that vessels with their masts can pass under them, whilst, at the same time, carts and horses are passing over their heads,--so well is the slope from the streets adapted to the height of the arch.” And another early traveller, P. Le Comte, with graphic brevity, writes as follows of the grand canal: “Outre ces digues, on a basti une infinité de ponts pour la communication des terres: ils sont de trois, de cinq, et de sept arches; celle du milieu est extraordinairement haute, afin que les barques en passant ne soient pas obligées d’abaisser leurs masts” (“Nouv. Mém. de la Chine,” Tom. 1, p. 161). There is also a description written by Barrow, who visited Hang-cheu before 1830, and whose testimony confirms that of much earlier travellers. Barrow was impressed by “a great variety of bridges” that spanned most of the canals. Some had “piers of such an extraordinary height, that the largest vessels, of two hundred tons, sailed under them without