SAMUEL TURNER on his mission to Tashi Lama in 1783-84 did not even reach the Tsangpo, although he saw the river at a distance. He followed the same way as Bogle »through the valley of Jhansu» as he calls Gyangtse. He found it »extremely rich with abundant crops of ripe corn, and exceedingly populous». He ascended the rock of Teshoo Loomboo and gives the following description of the view he had from its top: »From hence, I had the satisfaction to observe, on the northern side, at the base of the rock on which I stood, that celebrated river, the Berhampooter, in the language of Tibet styled Erechooinboo. It flows in a wide extended bed, and, as though the soil gave it an unwilling passage, it has forced itself through many channels, and formed a multitude of islands in its way. But though its bed appears so wide extended from hence, I was told, that its principal channel is narrow, deep, and never fordable. At this place, it receives the tributary waters of the Painomtchieu, I which I traced from its source, soon after my entrance into Tibet, to this termination of its course. Its individuality and its name, are here lost in association with the superior body, like various other streams, which come both from the north and from the south, and contribute to the magnitude of the Berhampooter, before it passes Lassa, and penetrates the frontier mountains, that divide Tibet from Assam. In this latter region, it receives a copious supply, from the sacred fountains of Brahma-koond, before it rushes to the notice of Europeans below Rangamatty, on the borders of Bengal, where it becomes a mighty river, exceeded in size by few that are yet known in the world. From hence it hastens on to meet its sister stream, the Ganges. These far-famed rivers are nearly related in their birth, as well as united in their termination ... Having now conducted the river, on which I looked down, to the termination of its course, I must not take my leave, without paying some further respect to this distant traveller, and marking, at the same time, the veneration attached to these celebrated sister streams, the Berhampooter and the Ganges. The common source of both, is the lake Maunserore; 2 situated, as I was informed, a month's journey north-west from Teshoo Loomboo. Separating at their origin, they flow in nearly opposite directions, one towards the east, the other to the west. It is the fate of the Berhampooter, to penetrate, in a tortuous course, a rude climate and most stubborn soil, till at length it quits Tartary and forcing a passage through the frontier mountains of Assam, enters the eastern boundary of Bengal.»3
This is a good general description of the river. The statement that both the Brahmaputra and Ganges rise from the Manasarovar is probably influenced by Tieffenthaler and Anquetil du Perron, although it is also, as we have seen, a general oriental view. Turner's map is very good, and for the time at which it appeared, admirable.
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