| ASIE CENTRALE PAR J. L. DUTREUIL DE RHINS. 57 De Rhins carries his law too far when he prolongs to the S.S.E. the range Chatou tou ling and joins it with the Sam tan gang dza, or Samdan Kangjang of Nain Sing, and further with the ranges which form the western watershed of the Irravaddi. Such a general direction, which, as we have seen, de Rhins himself regards as entirely fictitious, does not at all exist in the interior of the plateau-land. The general orographical structure north of Transhimalaya is as a rule more regular and less complicated than we should have expected. But the Transhimalaya is more complicated than the extremely simple, almost childish ranges constructed by geographical fiction. In his work de Rhins mentions all the names of mountains to be found in the Chinese texts and maps. He mentions Nien-chen-tang-la and Koïran, the latter called Sang dzian sang tchoung on the Chinese maps. But there is nothing about a great general system corresponding to my Transhimalaya. Regarding his great map of Tibet, where he has accepted the Chinese representation of the Buptsangtsangpo and Chaktak-tsangpo and even the non-existing Tarkou dzang bo tchou, one understands that he could hardly think of a great mountain system here. Even the principal water-parting becomes a most irregular and unlikely line in and out. De Rhins knows all the British publications of Tibet, but in connection with the mountains north of the Tsangpo he never even mentions the names of Hodgson, Saunders and Markham. He only uses texts founded on autoptic observation. As he calls certain parts of his own work of complicated transformation fictitious, he could not possibly use works which are not and cannot be anything but fiction. Pl. VII is a reproduction of the Transhimalayan part of de Rhins' great map with the title Asie Centrale par 7. L. Dutreuil de Ruins. This map is in itself an excellent piece of work, though its topography was rarely accepted on later maps of Central Asia. De Rhins here tries to reconcile Chinese geography with the discoveries of the Pundits, chiefly Nain Sing. Other European geographers preferred to abolish all the Chinese discoveries and to leave those regions blank where European travellers and Pundits had never been. In some points de Rhins' method leads to the result that certain mountains, lakes and rivers are represented twice on the map. Thus for instance we have the Dangra you mtso of Nain sing and the Tang la you mtso of the Ta-ch'ing map, though both are one and the same lake. The Chinese Chourou mtso is probably the same as Nain Sing's Siro tso, if the latter is identical with my Shuru-tso. Targo-gangri and Targo-tsangpo are also shown twice. De Rhins' method is therefore of great interest as it shows us how tremendous the difference is between the Chinese and Pundit maps and how great the errors of the former were. 8-141741 M. | |
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