196 ON THE ANCIENT GEOGRAPHY 
gar is situated very near to the head of the Jaxartes ; the Casia 
Regio is immensely distant from any part of that river. Now 
I submit to the learned, whether the imperfect resemblance of 
a single name can be suflicient to overthrow, not only the 
whole general description of Asia, but the particular descrip- 
tion of the very country to which it is applied. It happens 
very accidentally, however, that we stand here on much strong- 
er ground; for it is surprising, that geographers should have 
overlooked that Protemy has in another place given precisely 
both the name and situation of Cashgar. It is in a people of 
Scythia intra Imaum, the Cachage Scythe, whose situation is 
not precisely laid down, but it is mentioned, that they lie near 
to the Jaxarte, the nation who inhabit the banks of the Jaxar- 
tes. I conceive, therefore, that every argument founded upon 
this name must fall to the ground ; after which there will net 
remain a single prop on which this system can. rest. 
Mr Pivxerton’s hypothesis, which. places Serica in Little 
Bucharia, seems liable to all the objections already urged 
against that of D’AnviLLE, to a somewhat greater extent, and 
with the addition, that he disregards entirely the dimensions 
assigned by Protemy to those regions. ; 
M. Gossery has formed a very different system: He cone 
ceives the north of India, with the contiguous portion of Thi- 
bet, to be the real Serica of the ancients. To reconcile this 
with the statements. of Proremy, he supposes this geographer 
to have committed an error, when, in extending the caravan 
route beyond the Purgos Lithinos, he gave it an eastern direc- 
tion. It ought, he conceives, to have been southern, which, 
instead of carrying the travellers towards China, would have 
brought them directly to the north of India. Now, Lam fully 
aware, that the ancients erred often very materially in what the 
French call orienting their lines ; that is, in giving them a pro- 
per 
