国立情報学研究所 - ディジタル・シルクロード・プロジェクト
『東洋文庫所蔵』貴重書デジタルアーカイブ

fore unique, but also because it is the first European map on which the results of
recent exploration were combined and brought into harmony with the descriptions in
Chinese geographical works, the sources of which have been quoted above.¹

I regard this map as a master-piece of perspicacity. Klaproth has faithfully
followed the descriptions given by the trustworthy and reliable Chinese authors, and
combined them with Moorcroft's and other travellers' results so far as possible, and
has therefore arrived at a result that surpasses everything that before 1820 had been
laid before the public. Some details were altered on Klaproth's great map in four
sheets of Central Asia, published in Paris, in 1836. On his preliminary sketch of 1820
some features are more salient than there. We are, at the first look at Pl. VIII,
struck by the draughtsman's logical and natural way of reasoning. From the dry
and conscientious Chinese descriptions, which do not leave the smallest room for fan-
tasy, Klaproth has got a strong impression of the existence of very sharply defined
drainage areas, the Indus to the N.W., the Satlej to the W.N.W., the Ganges to the
south, and the Brahmaputra to the east. From this hydrographical arrangement, so
sharply defined by the Chinese, he concludes that the different river basins must be
separated from each other by considerable mountain ranges. His river systems are
therefore very sharply reflected in his mountain systems. The Chinese are masters
in describing river-courses, but they have no sense for mountains; rivers are very well
shown on their maps, mountains badly. Therefore Klaproth's ranges on his map are
artificial. Round the lakes he has an ellipse, from which ranges are radiating in all
directions. From the interior borders of the ellipse the drainage goes to the lakes.
Farthest east is Lac Goungtchou (Gunchu-tso), which, in accordance with Chinese
texts,² stands in communication with the Manasarovar. But the Chinese let the river
from Gunchu-tso join the Tage-tsangpo or uppermost Satlej, whereas Klaproth
makes the two rivers enter the Manasarovar at different places.

Klaproth calls the sacred lake Lac Mapama or Mansarowor and makes it
discharge its superfluous water through a channel, in spite of Moorcroft who had
travelled only a few years earlier. Klaproth had greater confidence in the Chinese
than in a European traveller, and in this case he was right, though, as I have
said above, Moorcroft was also right for the year 1812. Klaproth even places
the channel across the northern part of the neck.

The western lake he calls Lac Langa or Rawen-Reddor. From where he has
got the latter name I can not tell. Reddor has a certain resemblance to Desi-
deri's Retoa, which I believe is miswritten for Retok or Rudok. This can only be
a coincidence, for Klaproth did not and could not know Desideri's narrative.

Farther west he cannot do better than to follow Moorcroft's map, so much
the more as his map is confirmed by the Chinese texts. Tirtapuri, however, is