National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
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Southern Tibet : vol.7 |
82
STRAHLENBERG AND OTHERS.
exist in Germany, so far as he has been able to make out. It is, therefore, difficult
so far, to tell whether a third volume has appeared or not. If it exists àt all it ought
to be found in the Vatican or in some of the earlier Jesuit libraries.
In Vol. I, I have had an occasion to discuss the important part played by Father
GAUBIL regarding the history of exploration of the Sacred Lake.' Here I will only enter
a passage in a letter of his to DELISLE, dated Peking October i 3th, z 754.2
Si ceux qui arrivent à Dehli avoient observé la hauteur du terrain sur le niveau de la mer, on pouroit savoir aisément la hauteur du mont Cantisse au-dessus de la mer; car de la jonction de la rivière Ma-tcheou avec le Gange, on doit voir la montagne Cantisse et les voisines. On les dit les plus hautes du Thibet; il y a des monceaux de neige qui ne fondent jamais, et l'on peut les nommer Montagnes de neige, de même que celles d'où sort le grand fleuve Houang-ho, qui a sa source dans la montagne Bayan-kara du Thibet, et le fleuve Mourou-oussou, appelé en Chine Kin- cha-kiang ; .... Ces montagnes Bayankara ou Riches-noires, à cause des mines d'or qu'elles contiennent, sont, je crois, plus hautes que le Cantisse, au sud duquel le Gange prend sa source dans deux grands lacs.
As Father Gaubil misunderstood the hydrography, his hypothesis regarding
the height of the Tibetan Mountains was incorrect on account of his insufficient
knowledge of the country. He was, however, a perspicacious and intelligent scholar.
I P. 2 go et seq. ]~
2 Lettres édifiantes, Tome quatrième, Edition Paris 1843, p. 7o.
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