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



purpose. The longitudes are all far more remote from reality, and 

 when extended over a long space, are nearly valueless ; still when the 

 authors have been in person on the spots, the differences of both lati- 

 tude and of longitude will be found nearly correct enough to determine 

 the position of places at no great distance from each other. Thus 

 would I give much weight to differences of bearings of places from 

 Guznee, as a first meridian, when quoted from Aboo Rehan. 



The second class, is that of historians and the framers of geogra- 

 phical dictionaries, who compile books from the labours of the first 

 class. These form systems of their own, under which they endea- 

 vour in their studies to reduce the discoveries of others. 



Some form lists according to the letters of the alphabet ; others accord- 

 ing to the climates, and into these they insist on introducing all that 

 can be found written by those who have preceded. No discrimi- 

 nation is used to discover either the correct reading of the written 

 words, the proper position of the vowels and marks, the undoubt- 

 ed letters of the Abjud numeration giving the latitudes and longi- 

 tudes, or lastly, the credit due to the authority ; and thus the more 

 modern the author, the greater chance he has of containing the accu- 

 mulation of all the errors on these points committed by his prede- 

 cessors. Of the errors of the kind of not correctly reading the words, 

 I can give an excellent example ; and a proof of how little dependance 

 is to be placed on these written proper names. 



Sir William Ouseley's translation, of what he considers Ebne Huokul, 

 contains a list of the rivers of Herat, being in reality the various canals 

 branching from the Huree rood, and watering the cultivation as far as 

 certain villages on their banks of which the name of the most distant 

 or principal is given ; these canals are 3 to 4 feet wide, and deep accord- 

 ing to circumstances. Edresee contains a similar list ; and though I 

 have no doubt in my own mind that the type of both is identical, yet 

 hardly two words are now the same, and hardly one correct ; all this 

 results from constant re-copying, and such is the worth of the labours 

 of some of our best orientalists, and probably occidentalists. 



