462 Lassen on the History traced [No. 101. 



in the north from the Indian Caucasus to Bactria, have contri- 

 buted their share to our treasures, yet they have done it only 

 in an inferior degree. Now if the place of discovery of coins 

 may point out the country in which they originated, the Punjab 

 and Cabul are those to which must belong most of the names 

 of kings we have examined. It is therefore necessary more 

 carefully to set ourselves right as to the geography of those 

 countries, with regard to Bactria, and the other parts of India; 

 as regards this, however, the general information possessed by 

 our readers will be amply sufficient. Without extending this 

 geographical inquiry, we may be allowed to refer, as respects 

 the Punjab, to a published work* which indeed now requires 

 some additions and corrections, but which yet contains all 

 the statements, most important for our purpose. 



With respect, however, to the countries about the Cabul river, 

 where the boundaries of Indian and Iranian alphabets, lan- 

 guages and nationalities are fixed, where the empires to which 

 we have to assign their situations come most closely in contact, 

 and seem to intrude one into the place of the other, and for the 

 historic geography of which, there exist sources not fully con- 

 sulted, as regards those countries, it appears to be indispensable 

 to attempt an independent inquiry, with constant reference to 

 the points to be discussed in the course of examination. 



As between Hindoostan and the highlands of Tibet, the 

 Himaleh, properly so called, is the wall of separation, so is the 

 western continuation of the same mountain range between the 

 countries belonging to the Cabul river, and Bactria ; we may 

 call this western branch the Indian Caucasus or Hindookush. 

 From the point where the Indus, descending from the north, 

 breaks through this mountain range, it first runs, in about the 

 36th degree of north latitude to the meridian of Jelalabad ; the 

 western extremity of this circle nearly coincides with the 35th 

 degree of north latitude. These mountains, viewed from the 

 southern low land, appear as a four-fold chain of towering hills, f 



* De Pentapotamia Tndica commentatio geographica atque historica 

 Bonae, 1827, 4to. 



t Elphinstone ; an account of Cabul, i. p. 154, 2 edit. 



