OF CENTRAL AND EASTERN ASIA. 183 



therefore, admitting it to be the country of the Sacae proper, 

 in no degree expresses the extent of that which, by Pliny and 

 Ptolemy, was called the Sacarum Regio. 



There is one, and I think one only, important discrepancy. 

 Neither the Ladauk, the Indus, nor, indeed, any river whatever, 

 is to be found in Ptolemy. This defect, though serious, can- 

 not, I think, be placed against the perfect agreement of every 

 other feature. My impression is, that Ptolemy omitted these 

 rivers from not knowing whither to lead them, for he, ia com- 

 mon with the rest of the ancients, never suspected that the In- 

 dus or any river, penetrated across the snowy chain ; and the 

 last lesson which geographers ever learned, was that of con- 

 fessing their own ignorance. The omission seems supplied by 

 Pliny, who was not fettered by any such complete or mathe- 

 matical delineation, and who expressly states, that several ri- 

 vers, and, among others, two of great magnitude, traversed the 

 country of the Sacae. 



But what is this mighty range of Imaus, or what other chain 

 is there, besides the Beloor, which traverses Asia in such a di- 

 rection ? Whatever we may think as to where it really exists, 

 there can be no doubt, as Major Rennell indeed admits, 

 where Ptolemy meant to place it ; for besides all the other in- 

 dications, he states it as running northwards from Palibothra, 

 and somewhat to the east of the sources of the Ganges. It 

 ought then to be a chain dividing Great from Little Thibet, 

 parallel to the Reloor, though at a great distance, and shutting 

 in the eastern side of the table land. Such a chain seems 

 scarcely recognised by modern geography ; and yet there can- 

 not, I apprehend, be the smallest doubt as to its existence, be- 

 cause it is now ascertained by the combined reports of Major 

 Turner, and of the Caubul mission, that in this quarter must 

 lie the yet unexplored sources of the two greatest rivers of In- 

 dia, 



