f material spread over the face of the ground by the
winds and surface waters.

[I do not agree with the theory of Baron von Richthofen, of the almost
exclusive Eolian formation of _loess_; water has something to do with it as
well as wind, and I think it is more exact to say that loess _in China_ is
due to a double action, Neptunian as well as Eolian. The climate was
different in former ages from what it is now, and rain was plentiful and to
its great quantity was due the fertility of this yellow soil. (Cf. _A. de
Lapparent, Lecons de Geographie Physique_, 2'e ed. 1898, p. 566.)--H.C.]

Though we do not expect to find Polo taking note of geological features, we
are surprised to find no mention of a characteristic of Shan-si and the
adjoining districts, which is due to the _loess_; viz. the practice of
forming cave dwellings in it; these in fact form the habitations of a
majority of the people in the loess country. Polo _has_ noticed a similar
usage in Badakhshan (I. p. 161), and it will be curious if a better
acquaintance with that region should disclose a surface formation analogous
to the _loess_. (_Richthofen's Letters_, VII. 13 _et passim_.)

NOTE 2.--Taianfu is, as Magaillans pointed out, T'AI-YUAN FU, the capital
of the Province of Shan-si, and Shan-si is the "Kingdom." The city was,
however, the capital of the great T'ang Dynasty for a time in the 8th
century, and is probably the _Tajah_ or _Taiyunah_ of old Arab writers. Mr.
Williamson speaks of it as a very pleasant city at the north end of a most
fertile and beautiful plain, between two noble ranges of mountains. It was
a residence, he says, also of the Ming princes, and is laid out in Peking
fashion, even to mimicking the Coal-Hill and Lake of the Imperial Gardens.
It stands about 3000 feet above the sea [on the left bank of the
Fen-ho.--H.C.]. There is still an Imperial factory of artillery,
matchlocks, etc., as well as a powder mill; and fine carpets like those of
Turkey are also manufactured. The city is not, however, now, according to
Baron Richthofen, very populous, and conveys no impression of wealth or
commercial importance. [In an interesting article on this city, the Rev. G.
B. Farthing writes (_North China Herald_, 7th September, 1894): "The
configuration of the ground enclosed by T'ai-yuan fu city is that of a
'three times to stretch recumbent cow.' The site was chosen and described
by Li Chun-feng, a celebrated professor of geomancy in the days o