JOURNAL 



OF THE 



ASIATIC SOCIETY, 



JUNE, 1849. 



Notes on the Geography of Western Afghanistan. By Major Wil- 

 liam Anderson, Bengal Artillery. 



Any person attempting comparative Geography, soon learns how 

 very little dependance is to be placed on the geographical written proper 

 names of even the best classical authors ; words evidently intended to 

 be identical, may be traced through all possible forms of spelling, exhi- 

 biting any near approach to each other. It occasionally happens, that 

 authors of no repute may from accidental circumstances have learnt the 

 real correct form of a word, of which the most learned commentator 

 has been entirely ignorant. The Greek and Latin geographical writ- 

 ings on Asia are chiefly composed by learned authors, in their closets, 

 from laborious studying and reading of more ancient works of travel and 

 of history ; little discrimination was exercised over the various facts, in 

 rejecting repetitions or in distinguishing between the same relation given, 

 with only a few slight variations of circumstances ; hence, the greater 

 accumulation of error will be found in the latter authors, who often con- 

 tain undigested all those mistakes to be found in previous writers. 

 Very little dependance can be given to the names of places, distances, 

 directions or bearings, in the relation of the movements of the soldier, 

 merchant or mere traveller ; they are often, I suspect generally, subse- 

 quently compiled from memory, than which nothing can be more 

 treacherous or liable to err. Let any one attempt from mere recollec- 

 tion to recall any long line of marching ; and he will often, very often 

 find himself unable to determine with precision which places preceded 

 each other in the route, although he may be able to give a very fair 



No. XXX.— New Series. 4 c 



