154 REPORT — 1869. 



desiderata of geographical science. He will give you the latest intelligence of those 

 enterprising travellers, Messrs. Shaw and Hayward, the former of whom is at 

 Yarkaud, well treated, and apparently a special favourite with both rulers and 

 people. Times are indeed changed since Adolphe Schlagintweit, only a few years 

 ago, became a martyr to his zeal for science, and was put to death at Kashgar, 

 almost all his valuable papers and observations being, it is to be feared, irre- 

 trievably lost. 



Mr. Trelawney Saunders will read a paper in which he has combined some of the 

 latest information acquired by Capt. Montgomery, and his intelligent and enter- 

 prising assistants, the Pundits, and applied it to illustrate the general geography 

 of the Himalayan range. Much as has been written about that vast chain, it can 

 hardly be said that even professed geographers have any adequate conception of 

 the bulk and importance of that great mountain-mass. Its length may be said to 

 be still almost a matter of conjecture, for its eastern and western terminations 

 have both still to be defined. Its breadth, as Capt. Montgomery, who may be said 

 hrst to have spanned it, tells us is more than 400 miles at its narrowest, or about 

 eight times the average width of the Alps, with a summit-ridge the passes over 

 which average about 15,000 feet in height. Probably many scores of peaks may 

 be enumerated higher than Mont Blanc. Considering how long it has taken 

 geogi-aphers in Europe to trace out the yet unexhausted wonders of our own 

 Alpine ranges, it is clear that the Himalayan range and its offshoots may afford 

 ample ground for the most energetic of explorers for many generations to come. 



I trust some of our visitors may be able to give us late and detailed accounts of 

 what Mr. Cooper has done and proposes to do towards exploring the almost un- 

 known region which he has already so vigorouslj' attaciied from various directions. 

 Though he has not hitherto succeeded in traversing the inhospitable countries 

 between Bengal and China, the energy and judgment with which he has repeated 

 and varied his efforts must, sooner or later, lead to important discoveries ; and I 

 trust that liis repeated disappointments may find compensation in the ultimate 

 solution of what may be regarded at present as the great geographical problem of 

 that part of Asia. 



The Association will recollect that the latest intelligence regarding the course 

 of the Sanpoo, the great river which runs so far from W. to E. in a course nearly 

 parallel to the general direction of the main Himalayan range, has revived a former 

 discussion as to whether that river is the* upper stream of the Barrumpootra or of 

 the Irrawaddy. The supposition that it was identical with the Irrawaddy has 

 long been considered as set at rest, and some of our best authorities, such as Drs. 

 Hooker, Thomson, and Campbell, would, I believe, scout the notion that there was 

 any present doubt on the subject. Still it is certain that some Chinese and 

 Thibetan informants have assured later travellers that the Sanpoo is the upper 

 stream of the Irrawaddy, and we are almost destitute of any accurate data regard- 

 ing the course of the Barrumpootra much higher tip than Sudiya. It is clear, 

 then, that there is need of fm-ther inquiry before the question can be said to be 

 finally set at rest, and the little we know of the rivers further down, between Burma 

 and China, tends to show that it would be unsafe to dogmatize too confidentlv as 

 to the impossibility of any theory, however improbable it tx^&j prima facie appear 

 to be. 



Thus, unless there be a misprint in the published accounts of Capt. Sladen's 

 expedition, he ascertained Mourein, one of the furthest points reached near the 

 Bm-mese and Chinese frontier, to be 8000 feet above the sea, an elevation hitherto, 

 I believe, quite unsuspected. It is true that the somewhat doubtful course of the 

 four great rivers, the Irrawaddy, the Salween, Cambogia Kiver, and the Yang- 

 tse-Kiang, which are represented on our latest maps as running for so many 

 hundred miles, in courses nearly parallel, and frequently less than sixty miles apart, 

 would indicate streams flowing in deep gorges, like the upper course of many 

 of the rivers which have their source in the Himalaya, separated probably by 

 very lofty mountain-ranges ; but hitherto the data for mapping out the course of 

 these rivers have been little better than conjectural. We may hope that future 

 attempts to penetrate in this direction from Burma wiU meet with better success 

 than that of Capt, Sladen, who has, however, brought back information of con- 



