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TOPOGRAPHY PEKING. 171
nearly all in the form of huge turtles, with inscriptions on their carapace. The
approaches to the burial-places of the nobles are adorned with colossal effigies of
lions in bronze or marble. But more attractive to Europeans are the so-called
" Portuguese " and " French " cemeteries, where repose the remains of Ricci,
Verbiest, Amiot, Gaubil, Gerbillon, and other famous missionaries, to whom we are
so largely indebted for our knowledge of China and its inhabitants.
The tombs of the lie Ming dynasty some 24 miles from Peking, in a solitary
amphitheatre amongst the Tienshu hills, approached by a gorge, which terminates
Fig. 75. TIENTSIN.
Scale 1 : 2,600,000.
. 80 Mile*.
with a magnificent marble portal. Of these tombs the most noteworthy is that
of the Emperor Yung-le, at the head of a vast avenue of marble statues representing
fwelve high officials, priests, or warriors, and twelve pairs of animals, elephants,
camels, lions, horses, and the fabulous unicorn and kilin, some kneeling, others
erect. Although some exceed 13 feet in height, all are cut in a single block ; but
being distributed over too large a space without an eye to the perspective,
or to the
general effect, the result is not satisfactory. The body of the Emperor lies at the
end of a
long gallery under the natural pyramid of the mountain, and near it is
the sacrificial temple resting on sixty pillars of the nanmu laurel, each 43 feet high