Among those celebrated Englishmen who in the middle of the last century contributed to our knowledge both of the physical geography and natural history of Himalaya and parts of southern and western Tibet, the three great Doctors, Sir JOSEPH HOOKER, THOMAS THOMSON and A. CAMPBELL occupy the most prominent place. Whilst most of those explorers who, ex officio, or on their own account, directed their attention to the mountains of Kashmir, Baltistan and Ladak, were not sufficiently clearsighted to follow up their lines in accordance with or against the views of Humboldt, which in many quarters were accepted as gospel, — these three doctors saw or tried to see far beyond the ultimate horizon of their journeys, and, where they could see nothing, they did not try to construct any systems which, in all probability, would be destroyed some years later. Instead of relating their journeys chronologically I will, in this chapter quote the passages of their works which may serve to illustrate the European approach towards the interior of Tibet so far as my own regions and their neighbourhood are concerned. As these authors sometimes quote each other I take them chronologically only regarding the date of the publication of their works.
In 1848 Dr. A. CAMPBELL published a compilation from some Lamas' reports of an itinerary to Lhasa which gains very much in interest from BRIAN HODGSON's
notes. The first four stages took them over Tangla, Tenna, Goroogootang to
Dochen (Dochia of Klaproth: Hodgson) with the lake Dochen-tso. Stage 5 : Kala Puktang with a lake of the same name, as the former rich in fish. Stage 6: Semodah, Sumdta of Turner and Soumdta of Klaproth (Hodgson). The next six stages are: Kama-chooding, Chaloo, Saloo, Kideepoo, Demorang Zeung and Giangtchi with a river called Changchoo. To which Hodgson gives a note: »Changchoo river of Chang, softened from Tsang, which is the name of the western half of the central province of Tibet, called U'tsang, U being the Lassa division, and Tsang the Digarchi one. The great river of Tibet is called the river of Tsang, vide SanpûDzangbo of Klaproth. Its pre-eminence leads to all rivers, especially those of Tsang,
I »Itinerary from Phari in Thibet, to Lassa, with appended Routes from Darjeeling to Phari.» Journal Asiatic Society of Bengal, Vol. XVII, Part I, 1848, p. 257 et seq.
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