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0354 Southern Tibet : vol.1
南チベット : vol.1
Southern Tibet : vol.1 / 354 ページ(白黒高解像度画像)

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doi: 10.20676/00000263
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224   MAPS FROM THE FIRST THIRD OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.

On his map : Carte de Perse, 1721, which is superfluous to reproduce, Delisle shows the source of the Indus in Mont Caucase from where it flows to the city of Cachemir and a lake with a palace on an island, and thence to Atok, receiving the Nilab.

It may be suitable to insert here a few extracts from books and narratives of that time, quotations which will give a stronger background to the high merits of

Delisle.

MANOUCHI's Memoirs belong to a somewhat earlier period, for he served AURANGZEB who was the ruler of India in 1658 to 1707. But as these Memoirs were edited by CATROU in 1709, they may be mentioned here. There is nothing new in the work, which was behind its time, and the author relies more upon the observations of Teixeira, della Valle, Roe, de Laet, Bernier, Tavernier, and others, than his own. Of the Ganges he says that it takes »its source almost at the same height with the Indus towards the North». Regarding the source of the Indus we read : Cachemire is »the most Northern Country of the Mogols Dominions, Scituate at the foot of Mount Caucasus. Cachemire is indeed but one large Valley surrounded with Mountains. Some pretend that the River Indus takes its Source there, but 'tis a mistake not follow'd by any Geographer. Its true that a great many Rivulets rising in Cachemire run into the Indus ...»

In an article: »Recherches à faire dans les Etats occupez par les Mahoretans», we get an idea of what was regarded as the chief Indian desiderata of physical geography in 1715.2 It is a little »Hints to Travellers» 200 years ago. In the Kingdom of Kachemire, it is said, one should try to find out the cause of the sudden changes on Mount Pire-penjale, »where one passes from summer to winter in less than an hour». One feels a suffocating heat at the foot of the mountain and towards its heights everything is covered with ice and frozen snow. Therefore the form and height etc. of this mountain should be examined. In these words are expressed the understanding of the importance in hypsometrical relations, which was, however, familiar to Father Gerbillon some 20 years before. The glaciers and the part they played as birth-places of the great rivers had not yet attracted the attention of geographers.

Further: »whether it be true that in a place called Sang-safed, and which is not very far from a great Lake near the even in summer frozen Caucasus, a great noise is capable of exciting a strong rain, and, provided the story to be true, one should investigate the cause of this phenomenon.» Where this »White Stone» and »great Lake» are situated is, unfortunately, not told.

Another matter would be to study the countries situated in the mountains of Caucasus and surrounding Kachemire, and what is to be found in them.

I The General History of the Mogol Empire, from it's Foundation by Tamerlane, to the Late Emperor Orangzeb. Extracted from the Memoirs of M. Manouchi, a Venetian, and Chief Physitian to Orangzeb for above forty Years. By F. F. Catrou. London 1709, p. 15 and 194.

2 Recueil de Voiages au Nord, Tome I, Amsterdam 1715, p. 47 et seq.