Southern Tibet : vol.3 / Page 176 (Color Image)

0176	Southern Tibet : vol.3

and called this line *one* range. In reality the absolute height has nothing to do
with the ranges. Any fold may be an individual range whether high or low, and
the height is ordinarily a secondary matter depending on age and denudation.

In a note Hooker adds: ¹ »The only true account of the general features of
eastern Tibet is to be found in MM. Huc and Gabet's travels. Their description
agrees with Dr. Thomson's account of western Tibet, and with my experience of
the parts to the north of Sikkim, and the information I everywhere obtained. The
so-called plains are the flat floors of the valleys, and the terraces on the margins
of the rivers, which all flow between stupendous mountains. The term 'maidan', so
often applied to Tibet by the natives, implies, not a plain like that of India, but
simply an open, dry, treeless country, in contrast to the densely wooded wet regions
of the snowy Himalaya, south of Tibet.»

Regarding the general orography of Tibet Hooker's standpoint is as follows:
»Another mass like that of Chumulari and Donkia, is that around the Manasarovar
lakes, so ably surveyed by the brothers Captains R. and H. Strachey, which is
evidently the centre of the Himalaya. From it the Gogra, Sutlej, Indus, and Yaru
rivers all flow to the Indian side of Asia; and from it spring four chains, two of
which are better known than the others. These are: — 1. The eastern Himalaya,
whose axis runs north of Nepal, Sikkim, and Bhotan, to the bend of the Yaru, the
valley of which it divides from the plains of India. 2. The north-west Himalaya,
which separates the valley of the Indus from the plains of India. Behind these, and
probably parallel to them, lie two other chains. 3. The Kouenlun or Karakorum
chain, dividing the Indus from the Yarkund river. 4. The chain north of the Yaru,
of which nothing is known. All the waters from the two first of these chains, flow
into the Indian Ocean as do those from the south faces of the third and fourth; those
from the north side of the Kouenlun, and of the chain north of the Yaru, flow into
the great valley of Lake Lhop . . .»

The most striking statement in this system is that Hooker, on the authority of
Humboldt and Thomson regards the Kara-korum as a part of Kwen-lun. Concerning
the mountains north of the Tsangpo he says that nothing is known. He does not
even mention Hodgson's constructions. For although Hodgson's views were published
three years later, they must have been prepared beforehand and Hooker was on
several occasions in 1848—50 Hodgson's guest. At any rate *Asie Centrale* ap-
peared in 1843. But Hooker was too conscientious to accept anything that was not
confirmed by reliable facts and as such he seems not to have accepted the Chinese
sources. Therefore he calls Huc's book the only true account of the general features
of eastern Tibet. Without any doubt Hooker was well acquainted with the geographical
literature of High Asia. His general orography may therefore certainly be regarded as
the standpoint of knowledge at his time. When he says that the rivers from the south

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

Citation Information

OCR Text

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