SACRED ISLES IN THE WEST, &C. 3^3 



these two countries, South and North of Mtrii, 

 are in the sliape of a bow ; this is to be understood 

 of their outennost limits or shores. 



Another irrefragable proof, that by Mtru we are 

 to understand the elevated plains of little Bukhara^ 

 are tlie four great rivers issuing fiom it, anri flow- 

 ing toward the four cardinal points of the world; 

 three of v/hicli are well known to the H'mdus. 

 These rivers are the Ganges; the Sitd, flowing to- 

 ward the East, and now called the Hara-Mortn; 

 the Bhadrd to the North, and probably the Jenisea 

 in Siberia; the fouith is the Apara-Gmidica, or 

 Western Ga7idicd, called more generally Chacshu. 

 It flows toward the West, and its present name, 

 among the natives, tovvard its source, is Cocsha^ 

 and fr mi the former is derived its Greek appella- 

 tion of Od'us. 



Thus the distance of Meru from the equator is 

 reduced from ninetv de^-rees to fortv-hve; the dis- 

 tance from the equator at Lnncd^ to Sidd'ha-pura, 

 or the North pole, is leduced from one hundred 

 and eighty to ninety degrees ; and every distance 

 from North to South, in the Hindu maps, must be 

 reduced in the same proportion. 



Thus the snowy mountains, to the North of In- 

 dia^ and ])laced in the map in the latitude of fifty- 

 two degrees, arc brought down lower into twenty- 

 six degrees, the lialf of fifty-two : and they really 

 begin that latitude near Asaam; but they are made, 

 most. erroneously, to ran iiv a direction East and 

 West. Sth-aeo descants a great deal upon the di- 

 rection of the mountains to the North of hidia'^, 

 from HipfMrchiis and Eratosthenes; and concludes 



* StRABO, lib. II, page 118 and 122. 



