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Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books

234

THE NAME OF THE MOUNTAINS NORTII OF THE TSANGPO.

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I would also mention in this connection that Professor ALEX. SUPAN of Breslau in a letter to me proposed the name Anti-Himalaya and that Major LEONARD DARWIN found this term perfectly correct and not open to such objection as Trans-Himalaya.

It may be interesting to consider the views of Colonel Sir. S. G. BURRARD regarding the orographical position of his Ladak range, as set forth in his and HAY-DEN'S admirable work.' He obviously does not reckon the Ladak range to Himalaya, for he says: »The ranges of the Himalaya may be classified as follows: The Great Himalaya, the Lesser Himalaya, the Siwalik ranges.» But he alludes to the preliminary character of this classification, saying: »We shall not be in a position to define the limits of the Himalaya, until the geology of their extremities has been studied.»

Of the Ladak range he communicates: 2 »The western portion of this range was called by Sir Alexander Cunningham the Kailas range, on the supposition that the peaks of Kailas rose from its easterly continuation. But the Kailas peaks stand north of the Manasarowar lakes, and the continuation of Cunningham's Kailas range has been found to pass south of Manasarowar. Many writers have followed Cunningham, but Drew adopted the name 'Leh' range. Godwin-Austen called it the 'Ladak' range, because it was the principal feature of Ladak. We have accepted the name Ladak, and have applied it to the whole range from Assam to Baltistan. We are not, however, in a position to certify that a continuous range stretches in rear of the Great Himalayan range throughout the whole length of the latter from east to west.»

The following comparison is of interest: 3 »The Kashgar and Sarikol ranges thus constitute a system similar to that of the Hindu Kush and to that of the Great Himalaya. The Great Himalaya is higher than the Ladak range, but the latter is the water-parting, and its drainage cuts across the former through deep gorges.» Exactly the same is the case with the Hindu-kush and the Sarikol-Kashgar ranges. If now the Kashgar range and the Sarikol range together constitute a system, the Great Himalaya and the Ladak range should in a still higher degree constitute a system, as they are generally more intimately grown together.

The following words may also serve to clear up the question : 4 »The Ladak range forms the water-parting between the Ganges of Bengal and the Brahmaputra throughout the areas N, P, R and S, all of which are drained by rivers which pierce the Great Himalayan range and flow southwards: but near Chumalhari occurs the solitary exception; here the Nyang river pierces the Ladak range and flows northwards into the Brahmaputra.» From this point of view again, the two ranges must be regarded as belonging to one and the same system. And if the Ladak range were really a separate system, one could not easily talk of a Transhimalaya north of it, for it ought to be a Trans-Ladak system, which would, of course, be absurd.

I A Sketch of the Geography and Geology of the Himalaya Mountains and Tibet. Calcutta 1907, p. 75 et seq.

2 Op. cit. p. 92.

3 Op. cit. p. 105.

4 Op. cit. p. 125, and 156.

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