Now, if we go on with our journey towards the eastnorth-east, we travel a good forty days, continually passing over mountains and hills, or through valleys, and crossing many rivers and tracts of wilderness. And in all this way you find neither habitation of man, nor any green thing, but must carry with you whatever you require. The country is called BOLOR. The people dwell high up in the mountains, and are savage Idolaters, living only by the chase, and clothing themselves in the skins of beasts. They are in truth an evil race.

This is an interesting chapter of Marco's book, because it describes a region of which the outside world knew nothing from his time until 1838, when another European traveller, Captain John Wood, passed over it, and verified the account written by Marco Polo, more than six hundred years before. The Tatars call the loftiest part of the Pamir country the Bam-i-Duniah, or "Roof of the World"; it is the highest level region to be found anywhere on the globe. It is swept by cold winds, and even in summer the dry snow is driven across its surface.

The great sheep of which Marco speaks are still to be found there, and they have been named the Ovis Poli, in honour of Marco Polo, who first described them. A pair of sheep horns, brought home by Captain Wood, measured three feet from tip to tip, and each horn was four feet and eight inches in length, following the curve of the horn. The animals are hunted by the Kirghiz who inhabit

VI.]

OVIS POLI.

69

the lower steppes of that country; and Wood's narrative says: "We saw numbers of horns strewed about in every direction, the spoils of the Kirghiz hunter. Some of these were of an astonishingly large size, and belonged to an animal between a goat and a sheep, inhabiting the steppes of Pamir. The ends of the horn projecting above the snow often indicated the direction of the road," which is precisely what Marco has told us. Captain Wood,

who crossed the Pamir in February, says, whenever they came in sight of a large number of these big horns arranged in a semi-circle, they knew that there had been a summer encampment of the Kirghiz hunters.

What Marco says of the difficulty of cooking by a fire at a great height is entirely correct. Water boils at a lower temperature on the top of a high mountain than it does in the plain at its foot. The usual boiling-point is at 212 degrees, as every bright youngster knows; but on the tops of high mountains

water boils at 179 or 180, and men unused to so curious a phenomenon are puzzled to see the water boiling, and the food remaining uncooked. The pressure of the atmosphere is less on the mountain top than it is in the plain, and the heat of the fire causes the boiling of the water more quickly at the greater altitude. Water boils at the top of Mount Blanc at a temperature of 185 degrees.

MARCO TELLS A WONDERFUL STORY.

Samarcand lies in the southern part of Turkestan, just north of Bokhara, and therefore it was behind Marco Polo when he had passed the Pamir steppes: evidently, he did not visit Samarcand, and could not give us any information about the city; so he tells us this story:

Samarcan is a great and noble city towards the northwest, inhabited by both Christians and Saracens, who are subject to the great Kaan's nephew, CAIDOU by name; he is, however, at bitter enmity with the Kaan. I will tell you of a great marvel that happened at this city.

It is not a great while ago that Sigatay, own brother to the Great Kaan, who was lord of this country and of many an one besides, became a Christian. The Christians re joiced greatly at this, and they built a great church in the city, in honour of John the Baptist; and by his name the church was called. And they took a very fine stone which belonged to the Saracens, and placed it as the pedestal of a column in the middle of the church, supporting the roof. It came to pass, however, that Sigatay died. Now the