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『東洋文庫所蔵』貴重書デジタルアーカイブ

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course of the Ganges to the place where it enters Hindoostan, from the same map,

I ... consider this part of the Lamas' map as a very vague performance; but the want of better materials obliges me to make use of it. I suspect that the Ganges does not take quite so wide a circuit to the north-west, as is there described.» Thus Rennell seems not to have doubted the general correctness of the Lamas'

map, but suspected that the western bend of the source-branches went too far west. For he says of the Ganges and Brahmaputra: »A circumstance attending the courses

of these rivers, in respect to each other, is remarkably singular. Issuing from oppo-

site sides of the same ridge of mountains, they direct their courses towards opposite quarters till they are more than 1,200 miles asunder; and afterwards meet in one

point near the sea, after each has performed a winding course of more than 2,000 miles. Our ignorance of this circumstance, till so very lately, is a strong presumptive proof, that there yet remains a vast field for improvement, in the Geography of the eastern part of Asia.»

Further on, in a chapter called »An Account of the Ganges and Burrampooter Rivers», he does not seem to doubt the general correctness of the Lamas' map, for he says: »They are now well known to derive their sources from the vast mountains of Thibet, from whence they proceed in opposite directions; the Ganges seeking the plains of Hindoostan by the west; and the Burrampooter by the east.» And still farther on he says again:2 »The Burrampooter, which has its source from the opposite side of the same mountains that give rise to the Ganges, first takes its course eastward (or directly opposite to that of the Ganges) through the country of Thibet, where it is named Sanpoo or Zanciu, which bears the same interpretation as the Ganga of Hindoostan: namely The River. The course of it through Thibet, as given by Father Du Halde, and formed into a map by Mr. D'Anville, though sufficiently exact for the purposes of general geography, is not particular enough to ascertain the precise length of its course.»

ANQUETIL DU PERRON has some objections to make to Rennell's views on this question. 3 When Rennell regards the map of the Lamas, so far as the Ganges is concerned, as rather vague, Anquetil du Perron remarks that he, already in 1776 in journal des Sçavans had proved and printed that the Lamas' work was erroneous, and when Rennell says he had to use the material existing as nothing better was available, Anquetil thinks it was wrong to use material which was known to be false. When Rennell speaks of the Ganges and the Tsangpo as beginning from the same mountain, he is wrong, says Anquetil, for it is the Gagra and the Tsangpo that begin from the same mountain. Now we know that both alike were wrong. When Anquetil du Perron used TIEFFENTHALER's authority and Rennell that of the Lama map, Rennell got by far the best of it. He ought to have quoted Anquetil's

MAJOR RENNELL's MAP, 1782.

I Op. cit. p. 138.

2 Op. cit. p. 158.

3 BERNOUILLI, op. cit. II, p. .491.