Travels in the Himalayan provinces of Hindustan and the Panjab in Ladakh and Kashmir; in Peshawar, Kabul, Kunduz and Bokhara: from 1819 to 1825 vol.1

· 1837 · Public domain (published pre-1930) · archive.org ↗

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11but without their expressed approbation. A cold

12permission was Mr. Mooreroft’s only incitement

13beyond the stimulus of a speculative mind and an

14enterprising disposition. His first attempt, which

15was made by way of Chinese Tartary, has been

16long the property of geographers, having been

17published in the twelfth volume of the Asiatic

18Researches*. In this journey he was the first

19European to cross the Himalaya, and make his

20way to the great plain between that and the Kuen-

21luri chain, the situation of the sources of the Indus

22and the Seth-j. and of the two remarkable lakes of

23Ravan and M’anasa. Besides the natural di(li¬

24eu Ities of the way, he had to elude the vigilance of

25the Nepalese, then masters of the Himalaya, and

26who were on the eve of that war with the British

27which transferred the snowy mountains to the lat¬

28ter. Mr. Moorcroft had also to conciliate the Chi¬

29nese authorities beyond the Himalaya, and in spite

30of all obstacles, and of sickness, induced by expo¬

31sure and fatigue, he accomplished his purpose, as¬

32certaining not only the valuable geographical facts

33alluded to (the situation of the sacred lakes of the

34Hindus, and the upper course of two important

35rivers), but the region, also, of the shawl-Wool goat,

36and opening a way for the importation of the wool

37into Hindustan, and finally into Britain.

38* A Journey to Lake Munaaarovara in Ur.ties. Asiatic Res,

39vol. xii. Calcutta, 1816.

40VOL. I. 2 < b