| | | | 226 EUROPEAN SPECULATION UP TO THE MIDDLE OF THE LAST CENTURY Sources of the Burrampooter R.», Pl. XVI, where the river is correctly shown as taking its rise from the northern slopes of the Himalaya; it has two parallel source-branches, each with two heads; lower down, the river is called Sanpoo. This map has not taken the least impression from d'Anville, and therefore lacks all the good qualities of the latter. Of all the Europeans I have mentioned in this chapter not one had ever seen any part of the Tsangpo, but all of them have something to tell the world about its source. Therefore the source of the Brahmaputra has been wandering about in the most restless way. Sometimes it has been on the slopes of the Kailas, sometimes in the sacred lake and sometimes near or far from the Manasarovar. The only one who found the right course was Carl Ritter, because he used the oriental authors. All the rest have only complicated the problem and given an excellent illustration to the fact that geographical discoveries are seldom made at home. The orientais had been to the source of the river and therefore their description was right, as I have shown in the chapters of Vol. I dealing with the Chinese geographers. |
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