国立情報学研究所 - ディジタル・シルクロード・プロジェクト
『東洋文庫所蔵』貴重書デジタルアーカイブ

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252   THE MAPS OF STRAHLENBERG AND RENAT.

and European draughtsmen have made the same mistake regarding Transhimalaya, until I returned from my last journey.

Strahlenberg's Mustag is no corruption either, for the word can as well be

spelt Mustag as Muz-tagh. Stieler's Hand-Atlas has Mus-tag as Strahlenberg, and not Muz-tagh as Humboldt. »Olim Paropamisus» is unfortunate. But when Humboldt says that Strahlenberg has called the Bolor Mustag, he seems to have overlooked that Strahlenberg, west of his Mustag has a M. Belur, alias Bulut, i. e. Montes tenebrosi, and between both he has a Planities Pamer, or »the Plain of Pamir». Strahlenberg's Mons Belur therefore corresponds to the range I called Sarik-kol Range in i 894, a name that has also been adopted by Colonel Burrard under the form of Sarikol Range. Strahlenberg's representation is therefore in perfect accordance with the actual geography, his northern Mus Tag being the same as the Kashgar Range with Mus-tag-ata, and his M. Belur being the Sarikol Range, and his Planities Pamer being the Sarikol- and Tagdum-bash valley. He even knows the Terek Daban, a name which he gives to a range instead of a pass. Therefore Strahlen-berg's map is, in this region, far superior to Humboldt's, which was published more than a i oo years later, for while Strahlenberg has two parallel meridional ranges west of Eastern Turkestan, Humboldt has only one, which he calls Bolor, and which crosses the western part of Tian-shan in a most extraordinary way at right angles. And this western part Humboldt calls Mourtagh, which he supposes to be an improvement upon Strahlenberg's Musart. Humboldt's Bolor should soon be given up, while Strahlenberg's Mustag (Mus-tag-ata) and Musart and his two meridional ranges, which were 114 years older, should live for ever on the maps of Asia.

Strahlenberg was of opinion that the Hindu-kush, which he calls Hendukesch,

was the immediate western continuation of Mus Tagk, the southern Mus-tag or Imaus Mons. What else could he do as he did not know the several other ranges north of Himalaya! And we should not forget that the connection between the Hindukush and one or several of the ranges to the east is not definitely cleared up yet. The Swedish officer made his observations and combinations from Siberia, and got his information there, and the further south, the greater, therefore, are his errors. He makes the same mistakes from the north that the ancients made from the south. They meet halfway and arrive, in some respects at least, at the same conclusions. So, for instance, the Indus and the Ganges have their sources in the same range as the Keriya-darya. On Strahlenberg's map we find, however, an indication of a double range even in the west. The Khotan-darya and Yurun-kash of the map are represented as coming from a short range situated north of the Imaus.

The upper Ganges and its lake is taken from Delisle. East of it we find Tibet et Tangutiæ Pars alias Lasa Regnum, while Lac. Sofing is from Martini. Strahlenberg has two copies of the Koko-nor, which he calls Zinhac Lac:, and Koko Nor.

Strahlenberg's map is, under all circumstances, well worthy of being drawn from the oblivion into which it has been kept for such a long time.

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