554 Notes on the Geography of Western Afghanistan. [June, 



general account of the whole line of march, and a particular version of 

 many occurrences. The relation of time and order is not well remem- 

 bered. Many intermediate points between two important ones are often 

 entirely forgotten and omitted, or misplaced. Almost the whole of 

 the details of the geography of Asia were obtained by the Greeks and 

 Romans from the hearsay evidence of travellers and merchants ; it was 

 hence less to be relied upon as the distance explored was greater. It 

 certainly was not the custom of earlier times, for merchants to make 

 the venture of the entire line of traffic ; the merchandize of Hindustan 

 was carried by Indian merchants to Afghanistan ; by the merchants of 

 this country to Persia ; and by the traders of this quarter to Syria or 

 Egypt, and so on ; the inhabitants of one end of this chain, received 

 but a very confused and indistinct account of the proceedings of 

 those at the other end. Yet much of the information so obtained, is 

 now matter of geographical comparison. Let the confusion made 

 in Asiatic names by Europeans of the last century be borne in mind 

 and then we shall not be astonished at the little progress now made in 

 tracing out the districts and nations of antiquity ; the more so when 

 we add the errors of copyists for 2000 years. Nor are we quite assured 

 of the real measure of all the terms used for distance, time, weight, or 

 motion. 



The attempts to graft measured distances, or assumed travelled dis- 

 tances, on positions established by astronomical principles, is also a con- 

 stant source of error ; as little allowance is given for the reduction 

 necessary to constitute a right line ; or to the difference of the length 

 of the degree under different latitudes. It is this last error which 

 has carried out all places in central Asia, so far to the East of their 

 proper position.* 



The intermixture of systems has also caused endless trouble. The 

 travels of one man are conceived in his mind, and perhaps so written 

 down, on a certain scale, those of a second writer on a greater or a less 

 scale, while a third person, attempting to combine the two on the idea 

 of their being formed on an equal mental measure, would produce most 

 erroneous results — it is this which transposes places on the maps. Also 

 is to be remembered another constant but now untraceable error, confu- 



* The error of a traveller being well established between some determined places, 

 might enable his whole work to be reduced to an approach to fact. 



