[In the China Review (xiv. p. 358) Mr. E.H.
Parker, has an article on Acbalec Manzi, but
does not throw any new light on the subject.—H.C.]
NOTE 2.—Polo’s journey now continues
through the lofty mountainous region in the north
of Sze-ch’wan.
The dividing range Ta-pa-shan is less in height than
the T’sing-ling range, but with gorges still
more abrupt and deep; and it would be an entire barrier
to communication but for the care with which the road,
here also, has been formed. But this road, from
Han-chung to Ch’eng-tu fu, is still older than
that to the north, having been constructed, it is said,
in the 3rd century B.C. [See supra.] Before that time
Sze-ch’wan was a closed country, the only access
from the north being the circuitous route down the
Han and up the Yang-tz’u. (Ibid.)
[Mr. G.G. Brown writes (Jour. China Br.
R. As. Soc. xxviii. p. 53): “Crossing
the Ta-pa-shan from the valley of the Upper Han in
Shen-si we enter the province of Sze-ch’wan,
and are now in a country as distinct as possible from
that that has been left. The climate which in
the north was at times almost Arctic, is now pluvial,
and except on the summits of the mountains no snow
is to be seen. The people are ethnologically
different.... More even than the change of climate
the geological aspect is markedly different.
The loess, which in Shen-si has settled like a pall
over the country, is here absent, and red sandstone
rocks, filling the valleys between the high-bounding
and intermediate ridges of palaeozoic formation, take
its place. Sze-ch’wan is evidently a region
of rivers flowing in deeply eroded valleys, and as
these find but one exit, the deep gorges of Kwei-fu,
their disposition takes the form of the innervations
of a leaf springing from a solitary stalk. The
country between the branching valleys is eminently
hilly; the rivers flow with rapid currents in well-defined
valleys, and are for the most part navigable for boats,
or in their upper reaches for lumber-rafts....
The horse-cart, which in the north and north-west
of China is the principal means of conveyance, has
never succeeded in gaining an entrance into Sze-ch’wan
with its steep ascents and rapid unfordable streams;
and is here represented for passenger traffic by the
sedan-chair, and for the carriage of goods, with the
exception of a limited number of wheel-barrows, by
the backs of men or animals, unless where the friendly
water-courses afford the cheapest and readiest means
of intercourse.”—H.C.]
Martini notes the musk-deer in northern Sze-ch’wan.
CONCERNING THE PROVINCE AND CITY OF SINDAFU.
When you have travelled those 20 days westward through
the mountains, as I have told you, then you arrive
at a plain belonging to a province called Sindafu,
which still is on the confines of Manzi, and the capital
city of which is (also) called SINDAFU. This
city was in former days a rich and noble one, and
the Kings who reigned there were very great and wealthy.
It is a good twenty miles in compass, but it is divided
in the way that I shall tell you.
