croft and Mr George Trebeck, from 1819 to 1825. Edited by II. II. Wilson, M. A. 1841. Narrative of a Mission to Bokhara in the years 1843-45. By the Rev. Jos. Wolff, D.D. 1852. Caravan Journeys and Wanderings in Persia, Afghanistan, Toorkistan, and Belouch. By J. P. Ferrier, Adjutant-General of the Persian Army. Translated by Capt. Wm Jesse. 1856. Voyage en Turcomanie et à Khiva, fait en 1819 et 1820; par M. N. Mouraviev. Traduit par M. G. Lecomte de Laveau. 1823. Narrative of a Journey from Herat to Khiva, Moscow, and St Petersburgh. By Major James Abbott. 1856. History of Bokhara. By Arminius Vambéry. 1873. A Journey to the Source of the River Oxus. By Capt. John Wood, Indian Navy. The History of Persia, from the most Early Period to the Present Time. By Major- The Life of Baber, Emperor of Hindostan. Translated by Dr Leyden and W. Erskine. 1844. Bernier's Voyage to the East Indies. Pinkerton, vol. viii. Mémoires sur les Contrées Occidentales, traduits du Sanscrit en Chinois en l'an 648, par Hiouen Tsang, et du Chinois en Français par M. Stanislas Julien. 1858. The Russians in Central Asia. Trauslated from the Russian by John and Robert Michell. 1865. Bokhara: its Amir and its People. Translated from the Russian of M. N. de Khanikof, by the Baron Clement A. de Bode. 1845. Travels into Bokhara, &c. By Lieut. A. Burnes, F.R. S. 1834. Sketches of Central Asia. By A. Vambéry. 1868. The Delta and Mouths of the Amu Daria or Oxus. By Admiral A. Boutakof of the Russian Navy. Translated by Jno. Michell. Roy. Geog. Soc. Journ. xxxvii. First Ascent of the Tian Shan or Celestial Mountains, and Visit to the Upper Course of the Jaxartes or Syr Daria, in 1857. By P. P. Semenof. Translated by John Michell. Roy. Geog. Soc. Journ, xxxi. W. H. Johnson's Report on his Journey to Ilchi, capital of Khotan in Chinese Tartary. Roy. Geog. Soc. Journ. xxxvii, The Jaxartes or Syr Daria; from Russian Sources. By Robt. Michell, F.R.G. S. Roy. Geog. Soc. Journ. xxxviii. A New General Collection of Voyages and Travels. Printed for Thos. Astley. 1747. Journey from Leh to Yarkand and Kashgar, and Exploration of the Sources of the Yarkand River. By G. W. Hayward. Roy. Geog. Soc. Journ. xl. Timour's Memoirs. Translated by Capt. C. Stewart. An Expedition to the Trans-Naryn Country in 1867. By Baron P. R. Osten Sacken. Translated by E. Delmar Morgan, F. R.G.S. Roy. Geog. Soc. Journ. xl. Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. Layard's Nineveh. Edinburgh and Quarterly Reviews. Ocean Highways, &c. &c. &c. CENTRAL ASIA: FROM THE ARYAN TO THE COSSACK. CHAPTER I. GENERAL OUTLINE. THE ARALO-CASPIAN SEA-GENERAL OUTLINES OF CENTRAL ASIA-THE ARAL SEA THE UST URT-THE CHINK-HISTORICAL ALLUSIONS-SIR HENRY RAWLINSON'S THEORY-ANCIENT COURSE OF THE OXUS-THE AMOU OF THE PRESENT DAY-THE JAXARTES, OR SYR-THE CASPIAN SEA. ACCORDING to the late Sir Roderick Murchison,-no mean authority on questions relating to geognosy,-at a time long antecedent to the creation of man, the vast region, familiarly known to the present generation as Central Asia, was covered by a sea that washed the foot of a mountain range, which, at a later period, constituted the boundary lines of Afghanistan and the Chinese Empire. This pre-historic sea was spread over an area computed at 8000 square marine leagues, and extended from the Hindoo Koosh to the European shores of the Black Sea and the Sea of Asof. To this huge depression on the surface of the globe Sir Roderick proposed-in compliment to Humboldt the originator of the theory-to give the name of the Aralo-Caspian Sea, whose denizens appear to have had a purely local range, and to have been clearly distinguishable from the molluses and other marine animals inhabiting the outer ocean. At some unknown point in the latest tertiary era the barren plateau between the Caspian and the Aral Seas is believed to have been thrown up by subterranean agencies, followed, at a greater or less interval, by the upheaval of the much fabled range of the Caucasus, the Kaf of Eastern romance and the abode of that marvellous bird the Simurgh, the foe of the Deevs and the friend of man. As no traces, however, have been discovered of the junction of the Euxine with the Caspian, this theory must, to a certain extent, be regarded as rather speculative than scientific, though good grounds may exist for ascribing to volcanic phenomena the separation of the Caspian and the Aral Seas, and the upheaval of the dry lands recently comprising the Khanats of Khwarezm or Khiva, and Bokhara. It is certain that the fossiliferous limestone forming the basis of the steppes contains the identical molluscs, -the cockle, the mussel, and the spirorbis-which, according to General Abbott, still exist in the waters of those two inland seas. Nor is it less indisputable that the surface of the Aral is upwards of a hundred feet higher than that of the Caspian, the elevation of the rugged intervening plateau, known as the Ust Urt, averaging C00 feet above the level of the ocean. For our present purpose it may suffice to define Central Asia as the much varied region bounded on the west by the Caspian; on the south-west by the Persian Province of Khorassan; on the south by Afghanistan, Kashmeer, and Little Tibet; on the cast by the Chinese Empire; on the north by the river Irtish; and on the north-west by the Ural river. The general aspect of this immense tract is fairly, if roughly, described by a writer in Pinkerton's Collection: Between Great Tartary on the north, and Tibet, India, and Persia on the south, there runs a long tract of land, extending from the Great Kobi, or desert on the north-west part of China, westward as far as the Caspian Sea. This country is situated in a sandy desert with which it is surrounded; or, rather, is itself a vast sandy desert, interspersed with mountains and fruitful plains, well inhabited, and watered with rivers. Nature seems to have divided this region into three large parts, by the names of the countries of Karesm, Great Bucharia, and Little Bucharia.' Towards the north-west, enclosed between barren rocks and arid steppes, the basin of the Aral Sea-the Blue Sea of the Russians-occupies a space 360 miles in length from north to south, by 240 miles in extreme breadth from east to west : equivalent to an area of 86,400 square miles. On the east and north this expanse of brackish water is surrounded by clay plains ridged by hillocks of loose drifting sand, while on the west it is divided from the Caspian by the Ust Urt, a rocky, unculturable waste, 240 miles in length by 160 miles in breadth, and rising almost precipitously from the sea, but sloping gradually to the westward. It is, in fact, a continuation of the great steppe possessed by the Kirghiz Kuzzaks, and more particularly belongs to the Lesser Horde. At its south-eastern extremity it terminates abruptly in a bold escarpment some 500 feet in height, at the foot of which a level plain spreads out to an enormous distance. From this point the high land turns sharply to the west-north-west, and the angle thus formed is called by the Kirghiz, The Chink. The southern portion of the sea is extremely shallow, and swarms with small islands, whose inhabitants live chiefly upon fish, and are described as skilful boatmen venturing upon the use of sails, while the Kirghiz are content to ply the oar. The Aibugir Lake, or Gulf, at the south-western extremity of the Aral, was overgrown with canes when visited by M. Kühlewein in 1858, although it received the Laudan, an important branch of the Amou. This gulf is stated to be eighty miles long by twenty miles broad, and appears to have been dried up at the time of the late Russian expedition, through the diversion of the Laudan by the Khivese for purposes of irrigation. It is only near the mouth of the Amou that the water of the Aral is drinkable, being elsewhere exceedingly brackish. Carp and a small sturgeon are caught in considerable quantities. To the Arab geographers the Aral was only known as the Sea of Khwarezm, by which name and that of the Sea of Urghunj it is still called by the people of the Khanat. According to Generals Mouravief and Romanof, Aral Denghiz, the Kirghiz appellation, signifies the Sea of Islands, while others maintain that its proper signification is the Sea of Eagles. It was first surveyed by Admiral Alexis Boutakof, by whom also the first steamship that ever churned these waters was launched and navigated. Moved more by an abstract love of science than by patriotic considerations, the Royal Geographical Society, in 1867, presented their Founder's Medal to that gallant officer, whose extension of geographical knowledge has been since otherwise appreciated and utilized by his own government. Although on a level with the Euxine, the Aral, as already remarked, is more than one hundred feet above the surface of the Ca-plan, and the Toorkomans maintain that at Kara Goombuz the waters from the one sea may be heard flowing to the other, under-ground. If it be true that such sounds are at times audible, they are probably caused by subterranean drainage from the Amou, some portion of whose waters may follow underground their old course towards the Caspian. The Toorkomans who dwell on the shores of the Kara Bhugaz Bay account for the remarkable current into that gulf, by the theory that the overflow of the Caspian thence escapes by a covert channel communicating with the Aral, the comparative elevation of the two seas being a point quite beyond their comprehension. As a scientific fact it may be stated that there is no outlet for the redundant waters of either, and that the adjacent lands are saved from flooding by evaporation alone. Were it not for |