322 



CITY OF KAN-POO. 



Chap. XV. 



rapidly rising and forming islands,* miicli of it is 

 apparently swept by tlie rapid tides into tlie bay 

 of Hang-cliow, wliere it stops np the passages for 

 navigation, makes former seaports into mere in- 

 land towns, and gives a new direction to tbe traiSc 

 of tlie country. 



Kan-poo, the old city at which we had now 

 arrived, is an example of what I have now stated. 

 It is thought by some, and with pretty good rea- 

 son, that this place is the same as that mentioned 

 in Marco Polo's travels under the name of Kan- 

 foo. In his day it was the seaport of Hang-chow- 

 foo, and was frequented by ships from India and 

 other parts of the world. Now the sands and 

 alluvial deposit of the Yang-tze-kiang, and the 

 rapid tides of the estuary, have destroyed its mari- 

 time importance, and instead of receiving ships 

 freighted with the riches of India, and dispatch- 

 ing them full of the silk and other products of the ^ 

 country, it is an insignificant inland town with a 

 few passage junks which keep up a communica- 

 tion with the opposite shore, whose principal 

 articles of freight are Chinese passengers and 

 pigs. 



Kan-poo is between twenty and thirty miles 

 to the eastward of Hang-chow-foo. Some fifty 

 miles further east, and near the mouth of the 

 bay, the city of Chapoo has sprung up into con- 



* In 1843, when I first visited these parts, there was a sand-bank 

 barely visible at high water. That is now covered with trees, inha- 

 bited, and forms an excellent mark to navigators. 



