IIIF Color HighRes
National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
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| IIIF Color HighRes |
| Southern Tibet : vol.7 |
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Citation Information
THE MOUNTAINS NORTH OF INDIA.
89
However, he does not believe in such a simple arrangement, and begins, in the sequel, to subdivide the great range into several ranges:
Cette grande chaîne de montagnes a porté différens noms, & elle est formée de plusieurs montagnes que quelques auteurs regardent comme fort différentes les unes des autres, & dont ils ont formé la chaine ou le cours fort différemment. On vient de voir celle de Ptolémée. Les Chinois font, des montagnes qui sont depuis Hami jusqu' Kaschgar, une seule chaîne, & une autre depuis Kaschgar jusqu'au nord de l'Inde. La premiere porte chez eux le nom 1° de Tien-chan ou Montagne céleste .... 2 °. Sioue - chan ou Montagne de neige, parce qu'en plusieurs endroits elle en étoit couverte. Mais ce dernier nom s'étend encore à la seconde chaîne qui court depuis Kaschgar jusqu'aux Indes. Les Tartares appellent aussi ces montagnes Mus-tag qui à la même signification que Sioue-chan. Tag signifie une montagne, & Mus de la neige. C'est de là sans doute que le nom d'Imaüs a été formé; .... Cependant on pourroit le rapporter encore à celui d'Imeïa; c'est ainsi que les Indiens appellent les montagnes qui sont au nord du Ganges & qui font partie de celle dont il s'agit .... La seconde chaîne de montagnes est appellée par les Chinois Tçong -ling & Sioue-chan. Celle- ci continue vers l'Est tout le long du Nord de l'Inde jusqu' à la Chine, & laisse appercevoir un terrain au nord qui est renfermé comme dans un cercle. Différens rameaux de cette montagne vont se perdre dans les Indes.
According to this opinion it is a question, not of one single range, but of a system composed of several ranges or mountains, regarding which different authors maintain different views. Deguignes is wise enough to consult the Chinese for more reliable information, and arrives at the conclusion that the range stretching from Hami to Kashgar is the Chinese Tian-shan. The second range, Sioue-chan or Snow mountains, which the Tartars call Mus-tag, stretches from Kashgar to India. According to Deguignes the name Sioue-chan also includes the first-mentioned range between Kashgar and India, and, therefore, he approaches the reality so near as to place a double range in western Tibet. He has also located the Mus-tag of STRAHLENBERG fairly correctly, as if he had a presentiment of the existence of the Kara-korum System. As a matter of fact, he does not know the latter. But the use of the name Mus-tag in the regions between Kashgar and India is always a step in the right direction.
It is also worth noting that Deguignes uses the Name Imeïa for the mountains north of the Ganges. His Imeïa is nothing else than a corrupted spelling of the name Himalaya. This was in 1756. It would, however, still take some time before the Imeïa was formed into Imelaïa and Himalaya. In An Account of the Kingdom of Caubul, MOUNTSTUART ELPHINSTONE wrote Hemalleh Mountains in 1815. FRANCIS HAMILTON, in An Account of the Kingdom of Neal, 1819, has the terms Himachul, Himadri, Himaleh, Himalichul, Himaliya, »also called Humla, the Emodus of the ancients». In 1820 JAMES B. FRASER wrote Himala in his journal of a Tour through _part of the Snowy Range of the Hi?nala Mountains.
The last news Deguignes got from Tartary made it evident to him that the orography was still more complicated, and that the backbone range of which he had
12. VII.
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