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

mountains of Kara-korum. Burnes reduces to reasonable dimensions the fantastic
Indus of Dras. The following passage contains a good deal of truth:

'That the river of Ladak has its source near the lake of Mansurour has been satisfactorily
established by Moorcroft. The cource of this branch of the Indus is, therefore, of great length;
but the volume of water has been described to me as very small, though it receives several
tributaries. The Shyook, on the other hand, is said to be a vast river, formed of many
small ones, and discharges the water and melted snows of the Kara-korum mountains . . . This
is considered by the natives as the great trunk of the Indus, and its source, to the NE of
Ladak, is, consequently, that of the Indus.'

I have never heard the natives pretend that the Shayok should be regarded as
the source of the Indus, but if one only considers the volume of water, it no doubt
ought to be so. But as even the natives regard the N.E. branch in Tibet as the
source, and also point out the very source itself, Singi-kabab, we have no cause
whatever to create another source of the Indus.

It is interesting to compare Burnes' opinion with Baron VON HÜGEL's view
of the source of the Indus. In his Glossarium he says that beyond the Himalaya
range the course of this river is not yet ascertained with any certainty and its ori-
gin is unknown. He also finds it probable that the highest range of the Himalaya,
is pierced by the Indus, the Jhelum and the Satlej, but so little is known of the
country beyond the Himalaya, that the highest range may easily be situated beyond
the sources of these rivers.¹ Regarding the main source of the Satlej, he says that
it has, so far, never been followed to its origin, although it seems to come out from
the lake Rawan-hrad.

Hügel regards the Kailas as a considerable mountain range which, approxi-
mately, stretches in the 31st latitude, and, beyond the Himalaya, is parallel to the
Satlej, so that the sources of one of its sides belong to the Satlej, and those of the
other to Tibet. It is curious how almost everybody who has paid any attention to
the Kailas has his own conception of it, differing from that of everybody else. As
a rule it is regarded as a great mountain range, while, in reality it is only a peak
on the southern side of a mountain system. Hügel's route lies west of our regions
as he did not even proceed so far as Ladak. His work is adorned with a map by
JOHN ARROWSMITH, drawn in 1847, from Hügel's own manuscript maps.²

Finally, from 1843 there is an article by Lieut. J. D. CUNNINGHAM, that is
nothing else than a compilation from Moorcroft and Gerard, but also interesting
on account of the information Cunningham himself has got.³ He tries to introduce
some order in the nomenclature of the four rivers. The Indus is called Sinh Khabab,