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 of Tyre, despite the fact that the overland route from India to the Celestial Empire had been in general use from a very remote period. It is certain, however, that the existence of the former means of communication must have been known to the mariners of the Far East long before any rumour concerning it filtered through to the geographers of Europe. The overland route was still much frequented as late as the thirteenth century, when the Polos passed over it on their journey to China, and its greater antiquity would suffice to account for the fact that it was familiarly known to traders from the West who visited India long before the sea-passage had been heard of by them. It is none the less impossible to believe that the latter highway was unknown, at any rate to the natives of Southern China, some time before the beginning of our era. The Chinese civilisation is one of the most ancient in existence, presenting as it does the twin marvel of an immense antiquity and of a precocious development inexplicably arrested. The Chinese are said to have understood the use of the mariner's compass as early as 2634, and though there is reason to question the accuracy of this statement, their written records concerning the properties of the lodestone date from early in the second century of our era, and it is thought that the compass was in practical use long before the earliest treatise of this kind which has come down to us. If this were so, it is at least possible that Chinese seamen were accustomed to venture out of sight of land before ever Hippalus made his way across the Indian Ocean, and a glance at the map will show that