National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books

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250

THE MAPS OF STRAHLENBERG AND RENAT.

there is practically no sign of the Tarim basin on Witsen's map, whereas the fundamental features of this region, especially its western part, on Strahlenberg's map very

much approach reality and surpass everything executed so far. He is even much superior to Delisle's maps of 1705 and 1723, (Pl. XL and XLII), for while Delisle knows only the Khotan-darya and makes it flow the wrong way, Strahlenberg knows the following rivers: Axu (Aksu-darya), Tersik (Taushkan-darya), Kaschkar fl.

(Kashgar-darya), Melescha (Yarkand-darya), Choteen (Khotan-darya), Orankasch (Yurunkash), Karakaisch (Kara-kash), Tarimo (Tarim), Karia fl. (Keriya-darya), Tschikman

(Cherchen-darya?), Kipzak Darya (?), and Chaidu fl. (Khaidu-gol), or, in a word, all

the great rivers of the Tarim basin, though, of course, much was left to be desired regarding their relative situation. He knows all the cities of the same region and

some villages as well, and places them as a rule in correct relation to each other,

for instance, not Kashgar south of Yarkand as Delisle had done. Or, to mention only the most important: Kaschkar, Ierken, Sarikol, which has fallen too far

east, Kargalagga (Kargalik), Choteen, Karakaisch, Gurumkasch, Gumma (Gume),

Modsche (Muji), Karia, Gans (Gass-kul, which he believes is a city), Tarim, marked as a city, Karaschai (Kara-shahr), Chialisch al: Uluk luldus, the Cialis of Goës and

older maps, Kitzik Iuldus (Little Yuldus), Axu, Baij, Arwat, Kutschai (Kuche, wrongly

placed in relation to Aksu), Utschferment (Uch-turfan), and, further east, many places such as Turpan, Charnil, Lukzin (Lukshin, which Grum-Gshimailo found to be

situated below the surface of the sea), and many others. Curiously enough he has no Lop and no Desertum Lop.' Three years later d'Anville completes Strahlen-berg's hydrography eastwards by making the Yarkand-darya fall into Lop Nor.

Of the greatest interest to us is the way in which Strahlenberg has surrounded Bucharea Minor or Eastern Turkestan with mountain ranges, and nobody will contra-

dict my saying that he has known both the Tian-shan and the Kwen-lun. The eastern half of the latter he represents as a boundary between the Tibetan highlands

and Eastern Turkestan, as indeed is the case. Regarding its western half he commits exactly the same mistake as Ptolemy, namely, to believe that the slopes falling down to the southern margin of Eastern Turkestan and the slopes falling down to the plains of Hindustan belonged to one and the same range, one single range separating India from the Tarim basin.

Strahlenberg's eastern half of the Kwen-lun is therefore correct, while the western half includes both Kwen-lun and Himalaya as well as everything else situated between them, as for instance, Kara-korum and Transhimalaya. This western half he calls Mus Tagk alias Imaus Mons.

His northern range, the Tian-shan, Strahlenberg calls Musart, and, quite correctly, he has Uramtza (Urumchi), and Barskol Lac. (Bar-kul) north of this range and

I Where the Lop desert ought to be, he has a Desertum, the name of which is illegible on the original copy at my disposal. On PI. XLIX it reads cltus. On Strindberg's reproduction in our Geographical Journal 1879, quoted above, it reads Sultus.