194 ON THE ANCIENT GEOGRAPHY 



north. On the contrary, Ptolemy mentions very expressly, 

 that, after ascending the Beloor, they turned to the south-east, 

 and continued for more than two hundred miles in that direc- 

 tion. Unless, therefore, they had mistaken north for south, it 

 was impossible they could ever arrive at Cashgar. It is only 

 on a Superficial view that this system can appear to be favour- 

 ed by the graduation of Ptolemy. From the influence of the 

 same causes which we have noticed as acting upon the longi- 

 tudes, all his latitudes in Central Asia are greatly too high. 

 M. Gosselin, however, has proved, that the errors of Ptole- 

 my's graduation become great only by accumulating along an 

 extensive line, and that it expresses, with tolerable correctness, 

 the relation between two places at a moderate distance from 

 each other. The source of the Ganges, and, with slight varia- 

 tions, all the points along the northern boundary line of India, 

 are placed by Ptolemy in latitude 37°, (about 6° too high). 

 Now, one point in the caravan-route through the Sacarum Re- 

 gio, is only 39°, and the highest is 43° ; being six of Ptolemy's 

 degrees, less than five of ours, north from the source of the 

 Ganges. Ladauk is six ; so that in fact this statement com- 

 bines with the other indications, in fixing down the country of 

 the Sacae to Little Thibet. 



In corroboration of these proofs, it may be added, that silk 

 is not the product of this region, and that we should look there 

 in vain for the vast and fruitful plains described by Ammianus. 

 Much less is it probable that the Seres, a mild, timid, unwar- 

 like people, should ever have inhabited the country of the 

 Huns and the Moguls, whose hordes have in all ages spread 

 desolation over the eastern world. 



The only ground, so far as 1 can discover, upon which this 

 system has rested, is one name, the influence of which upon 



the 



