They would have to keep to the roads and pathways. But numerous regiments of cavalry could gallop at large over the plain of Tíngri."* In a like spirit the Tibetans themselves compare the vast province of Khám to a "field," and that of Utsáng to "four channels "+-both expressions plainly implying abundance of flat land; and the latter also indicating those ranges parallel to and North of the Himalaya, which all native authorities attest the existence of in Tibet, not only in Nári, but also in Utsáng and Khám. The most remarkable of these parallel chains, and that which divides settled from nomadic, and North from South Tibet, is the Nyénchhén-thánglá, of which I spoke in my paper on the Hórsók‡ and of which I am now enabled pretty confidently to assert that the Karakorum is merely the Western prolongation, but tending gradually towards the Kwánleún to the Westward. But these parallel ranges imply extensive level tracts between them, which is the meaning of the "four channels" of Utsáng, whilst the East and West directions of these ranges sustain Humboldt's conception of the direction of all the greater chains of Asie Centrale, or the Himálaya, Kwánleún, Thián, and Altaí, as also of that of the backbone of the whole Asiatic continent, which he supposes to be a continuation Westward of the second of these four chains.

Upon the whole, I conceive, there can be no doubt that Tibet Proper, that is, Tibet South of the Nyénchhén-thánglá range, is, as compared with the Himálaya, a level country.§ It may be very well defined by saying it comprises the basins of the Indus (cum Satlaj) and Bráhmapútra; or, if you please, of the Mapham, Pékhéu, and Yamdo Lakes.

In this limited sense of Tibet-which the native geographers divide into Western, Central, and Eastern Tibet, called by themselves Nári, Utsáng, and Khám, or, when they would be more

* Tingri is the name of the town. The district is called Pékhéu or Pékhéu tháng, and the lake Pékhéu tso. By referring to the Itineraries, it will be seen that the plain of Pékbéu extends sixty-eight miles in the line of the route, and is succeeded by a still larger plain reaching to Digarchi from Tasyachola (see Chountra's route). +Journal at supra cit.

Journal, No. II. of 1853. Essays II., 65.

§ See Cooper in Bengal Asiatic Society's Journal, No. 5, for May 1869, and Royal Asiatic Society's Report of the Soiree of March 1870, wherein is given the report of Montgomerie's Pandit, who states that the Mukhtinath pass, 13, 100 feet, is reached from the North by a long smooth grassy slope varied by occasional cultivation.

precise, Balti, Máryul vel Ladák, Nári, Tsáng, U', and Khám— Gángrí is the watershed of Tibet.

The region called Tso tso in Tibetan, or that of the lakes Mapham and Lanag, equal to the Mansaróvar and Rávanhrád of Sanskrit geography, is situated around Gángrí, 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 Bráhmapútra, or Singkhú-báb and E'rú) quit the plateau is great, as we sufficiently know from the productions of Balti and of Khám 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 E'rú or Bráhmapútra 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 four to five thousand feet in elevation, which gives a fall of above ten thousand feet from the watershed, both ways.

I will conclude these hurried remarks, suggested by the ambassadorial routes from Káthmándú 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 completely to identify the Turanians of India and Indo-China with those of the Trans-Himálayan countries.

It is this-E'ru tsángpo is the name of the river of Tibet: E'rawádi, that of the river of Western Indo-China or Ava: E'rú vel A'rú, that of a river in the Támil and Telúgu languages. Now, when we remember that Tsángbo is a mere local appendage to the Tibetan word,† and Wádi vel Váti a mere Prakritic appendage to the Burmese word; and further, that the Turánians of Tibet, the Himalaya, and Indo-China are still constantly * Journal for April 1832.

+ Tsángpo, of or belonging to Tsáng, the province of which Digarchi is the capital, and by which place the river (Erú) flows. Even the prefixing of a Y (Yéru-Yáru) is equally Tibetan (in speech) and Dravidian! Turner's is the first and correctest writing of the word-Erúchámbu to wit, for Chámbu is the soft-spoken sound of Tsángpo. (For erú read èru passim).

wont to denominate their chief river by the general term for river in their respective languages (teste Meinám, Líkhu, &c.), we shall hardly be disposed to hesitate in admitting that the Northmen, as they moved Southwards into the tropical swamps of India and Indo-China, clung to and perpetuated, even amid various changes of language, that name of the river of their Northern home (viz., the river, Kaт' éçoxnv) with which was associated in their minds the memory of their fatherland.

"By the waters of Babylon they sat down and wept."

P. S.-Before I went to England in 1853, I had been so fortunate as to gain access to some Gyárungs and Tákpas or inhabitants of Sífán and of the South-Eastern confines of Tibet. In my paper on the Hórsók I gave the substance of their information about Sífán. I will here add a few scattered particulars about the country lying above Asám, and the rather because, from the date of my return to India up to this hour, I have never again been able to get access to these people. The Tibetans and Sífánese are wholly unacquainted with the terms Daphla, Abor, Bor, Aka, Miri, Mishmi, Khamti, by which we denominate the tribes lying East of Bhútán. They recognise Cháng vel Sáng (Changlo of Robinson) as the name of a Bhútánese tribe or rather profession. They say that above Palyeul or Népál (Easternmost part-alone known to my informants) is Tíngri: above Deunjong or Sikim is Trinsam (the Dingcham of Hooker and Damsen of myself): above Lhó or Bhútán is Nyéro: above Towáng or Takyeul is Chóna or Jháng chóna: above Lhókhapta is Kwombo: above Tsárung is Chozogon. These are said to be the respective Cis and Trans-Himálayan districts occurring from the position of Kúti in Népál Eastwards to beyond that of Saddia in Asám. It is added that the river E'rú vel Yárú (Bráhmapútra) passes, from Kwombo into Lhókhapta, beneath the great snowy mountain called Kwombochári, and that a great mela or mart is held there every twelve years. Lhókhapta, or Lhó of the cut lips, is so called to distinguish it

* The word for river in De Körös's Dictionary is certainly erroneous, derived from a misapprehension of the attached descriptive epithet of the great river of Tibet. The common word for river is chú = water. But I am assured that a great river is as frequently called E'ru, A'ru, or with the prefix Yéru, Yáru, as in India a great river is called Ganga.

from Lhó Proper, because the people have the habit of making a permanent cleft in their lip.

Tsáng province is said to be bounded on the South by the Ghúngra ridge, on the West by Mount Ghúndalá, on the North and East by the Kámbalá range; the province of U to be bounded East by Sangwagyámda, West by the river Tamchokhamba, South by the Kámbalá range, and North by the Nyénchhen-thánglá. Beyond the last-named great snowy range is situated the immense lake of Nám tsó, which is said to bear the same relation to Northern Tibet that the Yámdo* tso (Palte or Yárbrokyú) lake does to Southern. The former is the Terkiri and Téngri núrt of our maps, as to which maps we have the following further identifications:-Ghámda Gyámda. Batang = Pátháng. Rywadzé Rewáché. Lári Lhá ríngo. Kiáng, added to great rivers Gyárung. River Takin = = Gyamo gnúlchu, and river Yang-tse = Ngá chú. Pampou of Huc = Phemba river and valley both so called. Galdeso river = Galden, and is the East boundary of Phemba and Lhása valleys, as the Tolong river is their Western boundary.

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Abstract of Diary of Route from Káthmándú to Pekin, as taken during the Embassy of Chountra Páúskker Sáh, showing the number and position of the mountains passed.

* I have elsewhere corrected the prevalent mistake about the shape of the Yámdo. It is very long and narrow.

Núr is Turkic for lake as tsó is Tibetan. Tengri núr, or celestial lake of the former tongue, is an exact translation of Nám tsó of the latter. The general prevalence of Turkic words in the geography of Northern Tibet more especially sufficiently evinces the presence of that wide-spread tribe in Tibet.

Boundary of Népál and Tibet.

§ Mount Everest of Waugh.