70 THE LAKES AND THEIR SURROUNDINGS BEFORE THE JOURNEYS OF THE STRACI1EyS.
fore unique, but also because it is the first European map on which the results of recent exploration were combined and brought into harmony with the descriptions in Chinese geographical works, the sources of which have been quoted above.'
I regard this map as a master-piece of perspicacity. Klaproth has faithfully followed the descriptions given by the trustworthy and reliable Chinese authors, and combined them with Moorcroft's and other travellers' results so far as possible, and has therefore arrived at a result that surpasses everything that before 1820 had been laid before the public. Some details were altered on Klaproth's great map in four sheets of Central Asia, published in Paris, in 1836. On his preliminary sketch of 182o some features are more salient than there. We are, at the first look at Pl. VIII, struck by the draughtsman's logical and natural way of reasoning. From the dry and conscientious Chinese descriptions, which do not leave the smallest room for fantasy, Klaproth has got a strong impression of the existence of very sharply defined drainage areas, the Indus to the N.W., the Satlej to the W.N.W., the Ganges to the south, and the Brahmaputra to the east. From this hydrographical arrangement, so sharply defined by the Chinese, he concludes that the different river basins must be separated from each other by considerable mountain ranges. His river systems are therefore very sharply reflected in his mountain systems. The Chinese are masters in describing river-courses, but they have no sense for mountains; rivers are very well shown on their maps, mountains badly. Therefore Klaproth's ranges on his map are artificial. Round the lakes he has an ellipse, from which ranges are radiating in all directions. From the interior borders of the ellipse the drainage goes to the lakes. Farthest east is Lac Goungtchou (Gunchu-tso), which, in accordance with Chinese texts,' stands in communication with the Manasarovar. But the Chinese let the river from Gunchu-tso join the Tage-tsangpo or uppermost Satlej, whereas Klaproth makes the two rivers enter the Manasarovar at different places.
Klaproth calls the sacred lake Lac Mapama or Mansarowor and makes it discharge its superfluous water through a channel, in spite of Moorcroft who had travelled only a few years earlier. Klaproth had greater confidence in the Chinese than in a European traveller, and in this case he was right, though, as I have said above, Moorcroft was also right for the year 1812. Klaproth even places the channel across the northern part of the neck.
The western lake he calls Lac Langa or Rawen-Reddor. From where he has got the latter name I can not tell. Reddor has a certain resemblance to Desideri's Retoa, which I believe is miswritten for Retok or Ruflok. This can only be a coincidence, for Klaproth did not and could not know Desideri's narrative.
Farther west he cannot do better than to follow Moorcroft's map, so much the more as his map is confirmed by the Chinese texts. Tirtapuri, however, is
I Carte du Pendjab et de la partie occidentale de l'Hitnâlaya. [Handzeichnung von Jules de Klaproth] [cirka 182o. Maassst. c. i : 1,250,000]. Royal Library of Berlin. E. 674o, 3/4 of the original. 2 Vide Vol. I, p. 12o.
IIIFカラー高解像度
