THE GERMAN CARTOGRAPHERS. 243
longer any great white blanks in Tibet, although of course thousands of small unexplored regions still remain.
I have tried to follow the history of sheet N:o 62 that has been in Slieler's Hand' Atlas for 90 years. A staff of the most able German cartographers of the time has been working at this single sheet and there are years of conscientious, indefatigable and patient work in it. The spectator ought to look at this sheet with great respect, remembering all the toil and patience it has cost not only the explorers but also the cartographers at home to clear up this little bit of the earth's surface, which is, however, one of the most difficult and inaccessible in the whole world.
There is one thing I should like to point out especially and that can be controlled from the reproductions given, and that is, that no German cartographers, at least not those of Gotha, have accepted the extraordinary fantasies of Saunders as to his range north of the Tsangpo and stretching to the N.E. of Lhasa. The Gotha cartographers would never accept anything but information resting upon real observation, and they would not have it, and they were wise enough never to adopt this Gangri range, which does not exist and which would have remained as a memorial of their credulity if they had believed in it. But on the other hand one long range north of the Tsangpo may be found on some German maps, for instance, the famous map of Asia drawn by HEINRICH BERGHAUS in 1843 (Pl. XIII),I But it is nothing like the enormous, single-crested range of Hodgson and Saunders, which was copied by Atkinson. It is conjectural, but not quite so bad as the English one. After this confusion of different theories and native descriptions the fundamental features have now at last appeared as they are on my map and it will be the duty of future exploration to fill in all the details in those parts of the Transhimalaya, which I had no time or opportunity to visit.
I Its title is: »Karte von China und Japan, den Manen d'Anville's und Klaproth's gewidmet von Heinrich Berghaus», published by Justus Perthes in Gotha 1843.
IIIF Color HighRes
