230 SHOOTING IN CHINA 



"After the emperor has tired in that 

 place, enjoying his sport as I have related, 

 from March to the middle of May, he moves 

 with all his people, and returns straight to 

 his capital city of Canibulae (which is also 

 the capital of Cathay, as you have been 

 told), but all the while continuing to take 

 his diversion in hunting and hawking as 

 he goes along." 



There are some interesting notes by Yule 

 on the above quotation from Marco Polo. 

 The accuracy of the description on the 

 route is doubted and difficult to reconcile 

 with truth, but the direction of the excur- 

 sion is admitted to be correct. As the crow 

 flies, Peking, which was Kuhblai's capital, 

 is about one hundred miles from the near- 

 est point of the coast in a southeast direc- 

 tion, and for such a camp, as Polo has des- 

 cribed, to reach the point of destination at 

 least five or six days would be consumed. 

 Yule further thinks that the "Ocean Sea" 

 referred to would be struck at Shan-hai- 

 kuau, near the terminus of the Great Wall, 

 and that the site of the standing hunting 

 camp is to the north of that point. In 

 1682 the Jesuit Verbiest accompanied the 

 Emperor Kanghi in a tour in the same 



