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 REGIONS NORTH OF THE KARR-KORUM.
I9I
his map, of which Pl. XLII occupies the N. E. corner.' This map is of great interest as it may be said to contain everything known about the region in question, in 1842. Curiously enough he has sketched the mountains as seen in a horizontal perspective, just as the Chinese do. So far as can be read from this map, the Hindu-kush seems far more to be a continuation of the Himalaya than of the Kuen-lun, which rather seems to lose itself in the mountainous regions north of the Hindu-kush. This view is not in accordance with the text nor with Humboldt's
schematic maps.
North-east of the Upper Indus, and crossed by the caravan road from Leh to
Yarkand, we find a short but rather mighty range called Karakorum or Padischa Kette. We have already found the mistake about the two different names in RITTER. North of this range is another, I3altü Gletscher, also from Ritter, and being in very intimate connection with the Kuenlün. In the latter is the Pass Kara-korum, though, curiously enough, not between Yapchan and Barangsar as it ought to be, but a considerable distance east of the road. The next range on the road is Nanschan Pingschan, which may be said to be a misunderstanding as set forth in Vol. VIII. Neither of these two names has a local raison d'êlre at this place. Tcheragh-saldi and Yagni Dawan are shown as ranges, and Santchutak, Sanju-tagh, is there south of Khotan. The Thsungling of the map may be said to be drawn as a western prolongation of the Nanshan. Notwithstanding the British sources, we trace the orographical conception of HUMBOLDT and RITTER on this well-drawn map.
Humboldt's orographical skeleton of High Asia is still more clearly to be noticed in HELMERSEN'S article on ALEX. LEHMANN'S journey to Bokhara and Samarkand in 1841 and 1842. He regards the Pamir plateau as situated east of Bolor, and complains of the very scanty knowledge possessed in Europe, of these regions, which are situated just north of the Kara-korum System. As regards future exploration he was very pessimistic. Speaking of the Tian-shan, Helmersen says:'
Dieses ostwestlich streichende Gebirge wird bekanntlich unter rechtem Winkel von dem hohen Bolor oder Belor-Tag gekreuzt, der weiter südlich auch den Kuenlung und die Himalayakette durchschneidet. Im obern Särafschan-thale musste Lehmann sich dem Bolor und dem östlich an diesen grenzenden Plateau von Pamir bis auf 25o oder 30o Werst genähert haben. Welch ein Gewinn wäre es für die Kenntniss Hochasiens gewesen, wenn Lehmann diese kurze Strecke noch hätte zurücklegen und jene oftgenannten, aber nur noch dürftig erkannten Gebirgsgegenden betreten können. Weder wir noch unsere nächsten Nachkommen werden die Zeit erleben, wo Europäer sich frei und gefahrlos in Innerasien werden bewegen können. 2
I Ubersichts-Blatt von Afghanistan und den Ländern an der Nord-West Grenze von Indien darstellend die Hochländer, Fruchtgebiete, Düsten, Strassen und Pässe. Vornehmlich nach englischen Karten herausgegeben von Carl Zimmermann.
2 G. Helmersen: Alexander Lehmann's Reise nach Buchara und Samarkand in den Jahren 1841 und 1842, in: Beiträ; e zur Kenntniss des Russischen Reiches etc. herausgegeben von K. E. v. Baer und Gr. v. Helmersen. St. Petersburg 1852, p. 26.
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