国立情報学研究所 - ディジタル・シルクロード・プロジェクト
『東洋文庫所蔵』貴重書デジタルアーカイブ

BRITISH EXPLORERS IN THE HIMALAYAS.   125

It is a pity he has not reproduced that map which may have been of a certain value.

Can it be said that the three famous Doctors, whose work in the Himalaya belongs to the very best and most conscientious ever undertaken, have contributed in any way to our knowledge of the mountains north of the Tsangpo ? No, not in the least. The Transhimalaya lay far beyond their reach. The few passages in their accounts which touch upon the region at all, and which have been quoted above, prove that they had a very vague and hypothetic conception of the country. Hooker gives the situation in a very simple and clear way when he says that the mountains north of the Tsangpo are unknown.2

It should be remembered that these able scientists and explorers do not even mention Hodgson's fantastical range. They had no doubt observed that Hodgson in his geographical theories was sometimes rather superficial and that he used to build up far-reaching generalisations from single more or less well-known facts. From the name Tengri-nor he concluded that northern Tibet was inhabited by Turki tribes, although the name is a Mongolian word and the lake situated rather in southern than in northern Tibet. Such methods of scientific research were not sufficient, and the learned Doctors were not willing to accept Hodgson's Nyenchhen-thangla range either.

Captain and Major SHERWILL travelled in Sikkim and published their experiences in the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, 1853 and 1862; and Captain CHAMER reached the northern passes in the spring 187o. Still Dr W. T. BLANFORD who accomplished a very important zoological expedition to these parts, is right in saying: It is a curious fact that since Drs Hooker and Campbell first explored the country in 1848-49, but one European had penetrated to the passes of Donkia

I Diary of a Journey through Sikim to the Frontiers of Thibet. Journal Asiatic Society of Bengal, Vol. XXI, 1852, p. 407 et seq. In an address 1852 Sir R. J. MURCHISON sums up the general results of Hooker and Campbell in the following words: »They satisfied themselves of the same fact, which Captain H. Strachey and others had ascertained in the more central and eastern parts of the chain — viz. that the country of Tibet, to the north of the snowy Himalaya, is no plain nor plateau, but presents for seventy miles a succession of mountains which, though ranging from 19,000 to 20,000 feet in height, with flat narrow valleys between, are wholly uncovered by snow.

He (Hooker) will confirm the statement, first published by Dr. Thomson, and afterwards by Capt. R. Strachey, that the Himalaya mountain ridge of our maps is an imaginary line drawn through certain lofty peaks which, catching all the moisture of Hindostan, retain it in snow and ice; and that these, far from being the real axis, are very distant from it. He will also show, that the central and eastern portions of the chain coincide in their main features with those described by the brothers Strachey to the west of the Lake of Mänasarowar, and that there is no plain (properly so called) of Tibet, though the rivers flow for some distances in broad valleys before they are encased in the mountain gorges through which they escape.» Journal Royal Geographical Society, Vol. 22, 1852, p. CVII.

2 Already in 1849 Dr Campbell had published a very interesting article on his trip to Sikkim, 1848, accomplished at the same time when Hooker was travelling. It does not throw any light over the country to the north. »Journal of a trip to Sikim, in December 1848.» Journal Asiatic Society of Bengal. Vol. XVIII. Part I. 1849, P. 482.