OF CENTRAL AND EASTERN ASIA. 185 



a succession of hardships, perils, and hair-breadth escapes, such 

 as never mortals before encountered. Whether the worthy 

 missionaries might somewhat exaggerate perils through which 

 they themselves passed, I shall not inquire ; but we have also 

 the report of an Indian traveller to Mr Elphinstone, that a 

 little beyond the Cashmirian frontier, there began an uninter- 

 rupted, and, in some places, a very steep ascent, of thirteen 

 days, to Ladauk. That place itself is described by the mis- 

 sionaries, as the abode of almost perpetual winter, and all the 

 hills around covered with snow. Yet the river being already 

 of considerable magnitude, this can only be a lower stage of 

 the great eminence from which it descends. Ladauk, too, be- 

 ing the established line of communication between Great and 

 Little Thibet, must be the most level one, and the mountains 

 must present, at every other point, a still loftier barrier. 



There appears, thus, no reason to doubt, that the Ridge of 

 Imaus exists, and in the very region where it is placed by Pto- 

 lemy. Up to this point, therefore, his description of Cen- 

 tral Asia, taken in its simple and obvious sense, proves to 

 be consistent with itself, and with the ascertained features of 

 the region which it professes to delineate. 



Having passed this formidable barrier, we arrive at the ex- 

 tensive region of Scythia extra Imaum. Upon the data now 

 stated, this can only be Great Thibet, with an extent of Tarta- 

 ry stretching indefinitely northwards. After Scythia comes 

 the famous Serica, the ultimate object of inquiry, the remotest 

 country known to the ancients. If Scythia extra Imaum be 

 Great Thibet, the next great country must be China. But as 

 this is a point so curious and so much contested, it may be ne- 

 cessary to examine, whether the inference derived from the ge- 

 neral line of Ptolemy's course through Asia is supported by 



Vol. VIII. P. I. A a his 



