194 ON THE ‘ANCIENT GEOGRAPHY 
north. On the contrary, Pronemy mentions very expressly, 
that, after ascending the Beloor, they turned to the south-east, 
and continued for more than two hundred miles in that direc- 
tion. Unless, therefore, they had mistaken north for south, it 
was impossible they could ever arrive at Cashgar. It is only 
on a superficial view that this system can appear to be favour- 
ed by the graduation of Protemy. From the influence of the 
same causes which we have noticed as acting upon the longi- 
tudes, all his latitudes in Central Asia are greatly too high. 
M. Gossetry, however, has proved, that the errors of Prore- 
my’s graduation become great only by accumulating along an 
extensive line, and that it expresses, with tolerable correctness, 
the relation between two places at a moderate distance from 
each other. The source of the Ganges, and, with slight varia- 
tions, all the points along the northern boundary line of India, 
are placed by Pro.emy in latitude 37°, (about 6° too high). 
Now, one point in the caravan-route through the Sacarum Re- 
gio, is only 39°, and the highest is 43° ; being six of Protemy’s 
degrees, less than five of ours, north from the source of the 
Ganges. Lapavx is six; so that in fact this statement com- 
ines’ with the other indications, in fixing down the cotritry of 
the Sace to Little Thibet. 
In corroboration of these proofs, it may be added, that silk 
is not the product of this region, and that we should look there 
in vain for the vast and fruitful plains described by Ammranus. 
Much less is it probable that the Seres, a mild, timid, unwar- 
like people, should ever have inhabited the country of the 
Huns and.the Moguls, whose hordes have in all ages spread 
desolation over the eastern world. 
The only ground, so far as 1 can discover, upon which this 
system has rested, is one name, the influence of which upon 
the 
