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192 ON THE ANCIENT GEOGRAPHY 
the known world, should appeat on the map as an entire blank. 
As they were far, however, from being all perfectly known, it 
became often necessary, in acting upon this principle, to have 
recourse to somewhat arbitrary measures. One of the most 
common was, by extension or repetition, to fill up the un- 
known parts out of the known, a process of which many in- 
stances must have occurred, to those who are versant in such 
researches. The combined celebrity and obscurity of the pre- 
sent object, might seem to authorise more: than the usual li- 
cence. Accordingly, it appears to. me, that Proremy has en- 
tirely protracted, into Serica, the geographical lines of Eastern: 
Scythia. Of this operation there appear, in. the very descrip- 
tion, to be pretty evident traces. We have Issedon Scythica, 
Issedon Serica; while, of the Casian, Auzacian, and Emodian 
mountains and regions, the western part is in Scythia, and the 
eastern in Serica. It is, I think, quite unexampled, that any: 
great country, much less: so immense a country as Serica, and: 
one separated by such powerful barriers from the rest of the: 
world, should consist almost entirely of districts protracted out 
of another region, with which: it has no natural or political con- 
nexion. We may observe, that Protemy stands alone in re- 
presenting Serica to be a country of mountains. AmmMiaNus,. 
as a historian, has given, at some length, a: description of its. 
general aspect. His representation decidedly is, that of a plain. 
of vast extent and luxuriant fertility, and which was only sur-. 
rounded by a circuit of mountains. I think. it even appears,. 
that the same idea was'in Protemy’s mind; for he begins by. 
saying, “ Mountains surround the Seres ;” though in the deli-. 
neation he certainly never reaches beyond these mountains, 
From the whole of what has now been said, it may be infer-- 
red, that all the details given respecting Serica are to be sought, 
and may perhaps be hereafter found, with some degree of pre-_ 
cision,, 
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