2. Asia from Asia Minor to India (Kashmir).
3. Africa.
4. Italy.
Only maps Nos. 1 and 2 have any interest for Sven Hedin. They correspond completely with the photographs procured by Professor Mittag-Leffler.
All the maps were restored by Francisco Grisellini about the middle of the eighteenth century. In map No. 2 great alterations seem to have been made in geographical details as well as in the text and in the decoration. As the map extends no farther east than Kashmir it has, of course, no connection with Sven Hedin’s discoveries.
Map No. 1, on the other hand, has in many essential respects preserved its original character. We can undoubtedly form a good notion of its original appearance by comparing it with the maps in Ramusio’s work Delle Navigazioni e Viaggi (2nd Edition, Venice, 1554) and with Gastaldi’s Tercia Parte dell’ Asia (Venice, 1561). The resemblance to the former is very striking. In these maps, as in the wall-maps, the south is to the top.
On all these maps there is very great confusion in the representation of the river systems of the Ganges and the Brahmaputra. The mountains are drawn in at random, and even the Himalayas cannot be identified with complete certainty, much less the ranges of Central Asia. As the map was chiefly designed to illustrate the travels of Marco Polo, it naturally gives no information about countries he did not visit.
E. W. Dahlgren.
Father Huc concludes the account of his journey with the following remarkable words: “Mais il ne suffit pas toujours du zèle de l’écrivain pour faire connaître des contrées où il n’a jamais mis le pied. Écrire un Voyage en Chine après quelques promenades aux factories de Canton et aux environs de Macao, c’est peut-être s’exposer beaucoup à parler de chose qu’on ne connaît pas suffisamment ... il est en général assez difficile de faire des découvertes dans un pays sans y avoir pénétré.”
It was with such truths in my mind that I began the journey described in this book, the object of which was that set forth by Sir Clements Markham, when in connection with Littledale’s last journey he made the following statement (Geographical Journal, vol. vii. p. 482): “In the whole length from Tengri-nor to the Mariam-la pass no one has crossed them (the Trans-Himalaya), so far as we know ... and I believe nothing in Asia is of greater geographical importance than the exploration of this range of mountains.”