The information Macartney could obtain, more than a hundred years ago, about the »Table-Land of Little Tibet and the Hills extending N. W. to Yarkand», could not be very great. He found out that a 5 days' journey N. E. of Kashmir an evident ascent commences, which is very considerable for 3 or 4 days, and then less to Leh. But he is right in concluding that this ascent continues on »to the great ridge which separates Tibet from Yarkand, as appears by the course of the stream which comes from that point». This ridge, he says, answers to the Pamir Ridge, and from his map it seems as if he regarded the Kara-korum and Pamir Ranges almost as one and the same fold, only with a little bit of the Beloot Taugh coming in between them. The road from Leh to Yarkand crosses it 15 days from Leh. On account of the country being perfectly desolate he could not get any information about it. But he is sure the whole country is excessively mountainous.
Lieut. Macartney's beautiful map to Elphinstone's work was »altered» from a map of 1809.1 Here Leh is situated on the Ladak River to which the Shauyook comes from the N. W., after having followed the southern foot of the »Mooz-Taugh or Karra-koorrum Mts.». There is of course, and must be at such an early date, much confusion about the situation of the different countries and mountains. The country »Cashghar or Kaushkaur» is situated between the Kara-korum and Hindu-kush and is not to be confounded with the Kashgar of Eastern Turkestan, which is also entered at the northern edge of the map. Although even Sir HENRY RAWLINSON some sixty years later denied the existence of a Kara-korum Range, MACARTNEY has drawn such a range on his map as clearly as the Himalaya. A road coming from the south and passing the Surik-kol Lake crosses this range and divides at its northern foot, the left branch going to Cashgar, the right to Yarkand, after having passed Oortung (Örtang). But the road which follows the Shayok River up and crosses the Kara-korum Range diagonally, is quite another one on the map, although both these roads in reality are one and the same. However, it may be that the eastern road on the map corresponds to the Kara-korum road, and the western, as it passes the Kara-kol and Sarik-kol, may be meant as the Tagarma road from Pamir to Kashgar. To this points the name Tunjee Tar amongst the mountains of Mooz Taugh. Under such conditions the Mooz Taugh is the Kashgar Range with the Mus-tagh-ata, and Tunjee Tar is the Tenghi-tar, or »the narrow Passage», which I have described elsewhere.2 Farther south on the same road the map has an Ak Tash, which, again, points to the ordinary Kara-korum road. But it is difficult to identify the two roads from these few names, as all three, Mus-tagh, Tenghi-tar, and Ak-tash, are rather common names in these regions.
I A Map of the Kingdom of Caubul. And some of the Neighbouring Countries Altered from a Map constructed in the year 1809. By Lieut. John Macartney, 5th Reg. Bengal Native Cavalry. — Pl. XXI is a reproduction of the N. E. part of this map.
2 Through Asia, Vol. I, p. 264 et seq. Cp. above p. 4o and Vol. VIII.
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