National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books

Kolosse des Djawahir und Dhawalaghiri scheidet; dieser merkwürdige Rücken bildet die Wasser-
scheide von Tibet, indem die Gewässer auf der einen Seite zum Indus und Setledj nach Ladak
(Leh) und Shipke, d. i. gegen NW., auf der andern Seite durch den Tsanpu nach H'lassa gegen
SO. abfliessen.»

From the Chinese sources one could really get the impression that such a
transverse range existed, specially as the water-parting between the Satlej and the
Tsangpo could hardly be anything else than the mountain between the Langchen-
kabab and the Tamchok-kabab. This transverse ridge had a long life to live. For
it is mentioned so late as in 1904—5 by the Tibet Frontier Commission. I have
shown already that such a meridional range does not exist. For what one sees
when proceeding to the west in the valley of the upper Tsangpo is not a range,
but only ramifications from northern and southern ranges, combined with the range
south of Gunchu-tso, which also is stretching W.N.W. to E.S.E. Even here the
parallelism is sharply marked out and there is no real meridional range. That
Humboldt believed in its existence shows how insufficient his sources were. That
Ryder believed in it proves that during the 60 years after the publication of Hum-
boldt's great work, practically no new knowledge had been added. As far as I know
no traveller had ever passed from the region of the source of the Brahmaputra to
that of the source of the Satlej on the way which I used in 1907. And if any
meridional range had existed here I should have had to cross it.

Humboldt in this work says the principal ranges generally stretch fairly parallel
to the equator, that is to say in the great axis of the Asiatic continent. He enu-
merates the following: Altai, Tian-shan, Kwen-lun and Hindu-kush, Taurus and
Himalaya, to which come the meridional ranges: Ural, Kuznezk, Bolor and Soliman.
The Kailas he regards as a special range: »Die Kette des Kailâsa erhebt sich im
Herzen des Tübetischen Plateaus selbst, nördlich von den Heiligen Seen. Dieser
Name bedeutet kalter Berg, von kil im Sansk. Aber Kailasa bezeichnet jeden sehr
hohen Gipfel.» Regarding the orographical situation of the Himalaya and Kwen-lun
in relation to western systems he has arrived at the conclusion: »dass die wahre
östliche Fortsetzung des indischen Kaukasus und der ganzen Kette, welche wir eben
von der Westgrenze Persiens an untersucht haben, nicht im Himalaya, dem die
Quellen des Ganges und der Dhawalaghiri angehören, gesucht werden muss, sondern
in dem Gebirgssysteme des Kuen-lun oder Kulkun, welches im S. das Plateau von
Khotan, im N. die Plateaux von Ladak und Tübet begrenzt.» Of the two branches
into which the western system is divided further east, one, the Himalaya, is directed
to the S.E. whereas the direction of the Kwen-lun is exactly the same as the direc-
tion of the Hindu-kush. Thus the Kwen-lun, the western part of which is called
Thsung-ling, is the direct continuation of the Hindu-kush, and Himalaya is only a
side-branch of the Hindu-kush; for here the principal question is about the continuity
of the direction of an axis of elevation or upheaval. In Bolor or Belur-tagh he sees
nothing else than the Imaus and this range gave rise to the belief in the existence