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
CHARLES WADDINGTON'S MAP.
141
et des chevaux. En général l'air est très-malsain. Plus loin l'on rencontre encore à moitié chemin une grande montagne, qui est couverte de glace pendant toute
l'année, car le soleil ne s'y fait jamais sentir. On y voit un lac, qu'on laisse
à quinze pas de distance ....» Approaching Tibet there is another mountain which can be crossed only by the help of »cotas» or yaks, and not far from Tibet there
is a town, entirely situated on the slope of a mountain. The last-mentioned mountain is, of course, Chang-la, and the »town» is Tikse-gumpa. We easily recognize the Kara-korum Pass, and the ice-covered mountain may be Saser-davan, or perhaps, the Kumdan glaciers, which seems the more likely as he mentions a lake, or more probably a river.
I will finish this chapter with a résumé of the orography of the English edition of SULTAN BABER'S Memoirs, which in some particulars is of no small interest.'
In the preface, p. XII and XIII, W. ERSKINE gives some hints regarding the materials of the map, which was constructed by Mr. CHARLES WADDINGTON of the Bombay Engineers : Thus some valuable manuscripts of Lt. MACARTNEY and of Captain IRVINE were used, regarding the provinces to the north and west of Hindustan. From Mr. MOORCROFT he got SPED IZZE'I' ULLAH'S journal in Persian. The route of the latter was found to traverse great parts of the nearly unknown districts often spoken of by BABER, and crosses the Emperor's kingdom. This journal was found to be of the greatest service in the construction of the map. The result was a very nice Map of the Countries of Fer«hana & Bokhara, chiefly constructed from original Routes and other documents. There is a note dated Bombay, December 1816, and signed by Waddington: a N. B. The Country south of Bokhara & Samarkand, is laid down, with several alterations & additions, from the map of Lieut. Macartney, corrected by the Hon. M. Elphinstone.»
To us the orography is the most interesting feature of the map (Pl. XXVI). To the north, Ferghana or the valley of Sir-daria, is bounded by the Ming Bûlâk Mountains, and to the south by a very long range carrying, from west to east, the following names: Ak Tâgh or White Mountains, Asferah Mountains, and Mûz Tâgh. From this range two meridional ranges start towards the south. The western one crosses Karâtigin, and is called Kara Tâgh or Black Mountains, the eastern one is called Belut Tâgh or Cloudy Mountains. From the Mountains of Pushtikhur, the latter sharply turns to the S. W. but without changing its name. This map is
I John Leyden and William Erskine : Memoirs of Zehir-ed-Din Muhammed Baber Emperor of Hindustan etc. London 1826. Two years before, or in 1824, KLAPROTH wrote: Le Bâbour-Nameh contient la relation des guerres de son auteur. Il existe une traduction persanne de cet ouvrage; elle se trouve à la Bibliothèque du Roi de France. Le livre est intéressant pour son contenu, et pour la langue dans laquelle il est écrit. C'est du turc djagataïen, mêlé avec une grande quantité d'expressions arabes et persannes. — Notice du Bâbour-Nameh, ou histoire du sultan Bâbour écrite par lui-même en turc oriental. Journal Asiatique. Tome IV. Paris 1824, p. 88.
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