Southern Tibet : vol.3 / 147 ページ（カラー画像）

0147	Southern Tibet : vol.3
南チベット : vol.3

Ryder's and Wood's peaks a considerable space was left blank on the maps. Fer-
nand Grenard seemed to be right when, on his map of 1899,¹ he entered two
long and parallel ranges, sending out several ramifications to the north and south.
The Chinese sources, which, up to 1906 were the only ones of real authoptic
authority, as far as the orography of the Central Transhimalaya is concerned, gave
a great number of small ranges in all directions of the compass. Ritter and Hum-
boldt joined them to one great range. On German maps both these kinds of orog-
raphy were reconciled with each other: one principal range with smaller ramifica-
tions in different directions. On English maps the representation of Ritter and
Humboldt was given: only one great range without ramifications. Such was the
case even on maps published after Nain Sing's journey of 1873—74. But nobody
existed who could tell whether the mountains, which obviously were situated north
of the Tsangpo exhibited the general morphology as given by the Chinese, or
as given by Ritter and Humboldt. This was impossible even in 1905. Nobody
was able to tell whether these mountains were a continuation of the Kara-korum
or not. But in England, as late as in 1882, there were geographers who believed
they knew that the Nien-chen-tang-la turned off to the N.E., in the direction of
Tsaïdam, — although already ten years earlier Prshevalskiy on his first great
journey had proved that if such a range existed, it would have to cross a series of
gigantic mountain systems at right angles.
I was fortunate enough to solve this old and obstinate problem definitely
during my journey of 1906 to 1908. I crossed the unknown regions of Central
Transhimalaya on eight different lines and was able to get an idea of its general
orography. My journey therefore put an end to the speculation which, originally
founded upon Chinese information, showed itself in so many different shapes in Eu-
rope. I have already discussed the important contributions of Klaproth, Humboldt and
Ritter. After them a few other geographers, chiefly English, have also paid some
attention to the mountains north of the Tsangpo. One of the most prominent of
them was Brian Hodgson, whose name is familiar to everybody who has studied
historical, linguistic or ethnological matters and natural history in India. As Brian
Hodgson is probably one of the first Englishmen, if not the first scholar after Ritter
and Humboldt, who has tried to disperse the dark clouds which have always veiled
Transhimalaya from the eyes of European knowledge, I have thought it worth while
to examine his geographical methods regarding the great mountains north of India.
I do so with so much the greater pleasure as Hodgson is a connaissance à faire and
his map of the Himalayan and Transhimalayan mountains, printed in 1857, could
give rise to supposition that during his many years' life in the Himalayas, he had
perhaps obtained some important information about the mountains in Southern Tibet.
Further it would be interesting to know whether Hodgson's representation of the

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