180 ON THE ANCIENT GEOGRAPHY 
from Peshawer to Nepaul, has made it exceed 20,000 feet 
above the level of the plain, being higher than the highest 
peaks of the Andes. The whole is recognised by Protemy un- 
der the name of Imaus. The northern range, known by the 
uncouth appellations of Mooz Taugh or Karrakorrum, is, I ap- 
prehend, described by him under that of Mons Ascataneas. 
Though its absolute elevation appears to exceed the Himalaya, 
yet, from the high level of its base, it does not present so for- 
midable an aspect. At the western extremity of these two 
chains, we find another, running at right angles to both, con- 
necting them, and shutting in the western side of the table 
land. This is called the Beloor Taugh, (or Beloor, as taugh 
is merely the generic name of mountain.) It forms the east- 
ern limit of Shoghnaun, the ancient Sogdiana, and thus coin- 
cides with the Montes Comedorum, the first ascent which the 
caravan is represented as having had to encounter. M. Gossz- 
LN, the most sceptical of modern inquirers, recognises the co- 
incidence, so that, up to this point, there is no controversy. . 
Mr Exrurnstone’s map exhibits a route up the valley of 
the Oxus, and then ascending the Beloor, which has every ap- 
pearance of being the route followed by the merchants upon 
this occasion. Having surmounted this laborious ascent, they 
descended into a plain, not arable or fertile, but affording abun- 
dant pasturage to the nomadic tribes by whom it was traver- 
sed. Then ascending a valley, by a route which I suspect to 
be that traced by Mr Exrursronr, up the valley of the La- 
dank, they came, first, to the Stone Tower, a singular appella- 
tion which is never explained, and then to another station, 
where a grand rendezvous took place of all the caravans that 
were proceeding to the great emporium of the East. This 
union was formed, with the view of overcoming an obstacle 
more formidable than any they had yet encountered,—the migh- 
ty 
ee 
