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Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books

4

THE HYDROGRAPHICAL PROBLEM OF THE DRAGON LAKE.

57

Here the case is the same as in the west. In »Histoire» we read:

Le même lac se partage à l'est, et il en sort un grand fleuve qui, se dirigeant à l'est, arrive jusqu'à la frontière occidentale du royaume de Kie-cha (Kachgar), se réunit au fleuve Si-to (Sî-tâ), coule avec lui à l'est, et va se jeter dans la mer. Toutes les rivières de gauche se réunissent également ensemble.'

And the same passage by Beal:

From the eastern division of the lake a great river proceeds in the direction of the Kie-sha country (Kashgar), and on its western frontier unites with the Sitâ river and flowing to the east enters the sea. All the streams on the left, likewise, unite in the same way.2

Thus according to Hsüan-chuang the eastern river is only situated east of the lake, but according to Hui-li it is discharged from the lake itself.

RITTER, whose authorities are Rémusat, Klaproth, Jacquet and Neumann, regards both the western and the eastern rivers, as issuing from the Dragon Lake.3 According to the descriptions of Hsüan-chuang and his biographers, the Dragon Lake therefore discharges both to the west and the east. The Sor-kg 1, Wood's lake, has a western discharge — the Pamir river joining Ah-i Panja. Chakmakden-köl has an eastern discharge, the Aksu,

í      which, however, turns north and west, and joins as Murghab and Bartang the Ab-i-Panja
or Oxus. The mistake of the pilgrim, if he means Chakmakden-köl, may easily be understood. He may have followed the course of the Wakhān river (Ab-i Panja) up to the sharp bend at Bozai-gumbez, and reached Chakmakden-köl in the belief that the Wakhan river came from the lake. At the eastern end of the lake he has seen another river issuing to the N. E. He may have left its valley somewhere near the Bayik Pass. Later on he may have got the impression that the river of Tasli-kurgan, the Sītā, was the continuation of the eastern river from Chakmakden-köl. Such mistakes are indeed pardonable with a man who travels through the labyrinth of the Pamirs for the first time in his life, without any maps, and with his main attention directed upon religious matters. Even to us who have the maps and accounts of our predecessors it is often difficult to solve the hydrographical problems. We have only to think of Moorcroft who in spite of his very conscientious investigation did not succeed in solving the Manasarovar problem.

There is still a third alternative, given by a Chinese author, viz., HSUHsING-ro in his IIsi-yi-i-shui-lao-chi from 1824. He speaks of a lake in the Pamir, which is pretended to have an outflow both to the west and to the east, and in connection with his account he even quotes Hsüan-chuang.

In his paragraph on the Kaslagar-darya he tells us that this river is formed by two sources or feeders, the northern, Ulan-ussu or Kizil-su, and the southern or the Yamanyar river.4 According to the Hsi-yü-shui-tao-chi, the Yamanyar river issues from the Kara-kol or Black Lake which is situated to the east of "'Kosh-küchük, and has a circumference

I Op. cit., p. 272.

2 Op. cit., p. 198.

3 RITTER has the following reading after JACQUET: »Dieser große Fluß gegen West, der sich aus dem See ergießt, und der Ostgrenze der Gegend Za mo si tie ti, setzt seinen Lauf gegen Westen fort, zum Fa tsu (Oxus), und alle Wasser zur Rechten des Sees fließen gegen West. Aber aus der Ostseite des Drachensees ergießt sich auch ein großes Wasser (offenbar der Yaman yar) zum Sito-Fluß (es ist der Kaschgharstrom) an der Westgrenze der Landschaft Khascha (d. i. Kaschghar). Dieser Sito-Strom setzt seinen Lauf gegen den Osten fort, und eben so alle Wasser zur Linken (d. i. die Flüsse im Norden des Drachensees), ziehen alle ostwärts durch Kaschghar zum Systeme des großen Talimu. Erdkunde, Bd. VII, p. 496.

4 KARL HIMLY, Einiges über das Si-yü-shui-tao-ki. Zeitschr. d. Gesellschaft f. Erdkunde zu Berlin, Bd. KV, Berlin 188o, p. 189.

B. VIII.