484 Route of two Nepalese Embassies to Pehin. [No. 6. 



The region of the lakes, Mapham and Lanag, equal to the Man- 

 sarovar and Bavanhrad of Sanskrit geography, is situated around 

 Gangri, where the elevation of the plateau is 15,250 feet. From 

 this region the fall of the plateau to the points where the rivers 

 (Indus and Brahmaputra, or Singkha-bab and Eni) quit the plateau, 

 is great, as we sufficiently know from the productions of Balti and 

 of Khain at and around those points. In lower Balti snow never 

 falls : there are two crops of grain each year, and many excellent 

 fruits, as we learn from native writers ; # whilst my own information 

 received viva voce from natives of those parts, assures me that the 

 country towards the gorge of the Eru or Brahmaputra is, like Balti, 

 free of snow and yields two crops a year ; that rice is produced and 

 silk and cotton ; and that these last articles form the ordinary 

 materials of the people's dress. These points cannot therefore 

 exceed 4 — 5000 feet in elevation, which gives a fall of above 10,000 

 feet from the water-shed, both ways. 



I will conclude these hurried remarks suggested by the ambas- 

 sadorial routes from ITathmandu to Pekin, now submitted to the 

 Society, with a statement, which I think the Society will perceive 

 the high interest of, with reference to those recent ethnological 

 researches, the whole tendency of which is more and more com- 

 pletely to identify the Turanians of India and Indo-China with 

 those of the trans-himalayan countries. 



It is this, Eru-tsangpo is the name of the river of Tibet : Erii- 

 wadi, that of the river of Western Indo-China or Ava : Eru vel 

 Am, that of a river in the Tamil and Telugu languages. Now, 

 when we remember that Tsangpo is a mere local appendage, to the 

 Tibetan word,t and wadi vel vati, a mere prakritic appendage to 

 the Burmese word ; and further, that the Turanians of Tibet, the 

 Himalaya, and Indo-China, are still constantly wont to denominate 

 their chief river by the general term for river in their respective 



* Journal for April, 1832. 



t Tsangpo, of or belonging to Tsang, the province of which Digarcha is the 

 capital and by which place the river (Era) flows. Even the prefixing of a Y, 

 (Yeru-Yaru) is equally Tibetan (in speech) and Dhavirian ! Turner's is the first 

 and correctest writing of the word, Eru-chambu to wit, for chambu is the soft 

 spoken sound of Tsangpo. 



