° 
OF CENTRAL AND EASTERN ASIA. 183 
therefore, admitting it to be the country of the Sacz proper, 
in no degree expresses the extent of that which, by Priyy and 
Protemy, was called the Sacarum Regio. 
There is one, and I think one only, important discrepancy. 
Neither the Ladauk, the Indus, nor, indeed, any river whatever, 
is to be found in Protemy., This defect, though serious, can- 
not, I think, be placed against the perfect agreement of every 
other feature. My impression is, that Protemy emitted these 
rivers from not knowing whither to lead them, for he, in com- 
mon with the rest of the ancients, never suspected that the In- 
dus or any river, penetrated across the snowy chain; and the 
last lesson which geographers ever learned, was that of con- 
fessing their own ignorance. The omission seems supplied by 
Pury, who was not fettered by any such complete or mathe- 
matical delineation, and. who expressly states, that several ri- 
vers, and, among others, two of great magnitude, traversed the 
country of the Sacz. 
But what is this mighty range of Inari or what other chain 
is there, besides the Beloor, which traverses Asia in such a di- 
rection? Whatever we may think as to where it really exists, 
there can be no doubt, as Major Rennetx indeed admits, 
where Protemy meant to place it ; for besides all the other in- 
dications, he states it as running northwards trom Palibothra, 
and somewhat to the east of the sources of the Ganges. It 
ought then to be a chain dividing Great from Little Thibet, 
parallel to the Beloor, though at a great distance, and shutting 
in the eastern side of the table land. Such a chain seems 
scarcely recognised by modern geography ; and yet there can- 
not, I apprehend,-be the smallest doubt as to its existence, be- 
cause it is now ascertained by the combined reports of Major 
Turner, and of the Caubul mission, that in this quarter must 
lie the yet unexplored sources of the two greatest rivers of In- 
dia, 
