strong ice that loaded carts were driven across from one bank to the other. At the commencement of the 15th century the Portuguese ambassador, Ruy Gonzalez de Clavijo, alludes with reverence to the Viadme, as he calls it, and describes it as one of the rivers that descended from Paradise. It attains, he says, a league in width, and traverses a flat country with great and wonderful force, until, at last, it reaches its goal in the Sea of Baku-one of the many names of the Caspian. Its muddy waters, he continues, are lowest in the winter season, when its sources in the mountains are congealed, but in April the melting snows begin to fill its broad, deep bed, and for the next four months it is a noble river. In 1558, Anthony Jenkinson, the shrewd and adventurous representative of the London 'Muscovy Company,' mentions, that on the 5th October he struck' a gulf of the Caspianthough it is far more likely to have been the Aibugir Gulf of the Sea of Aral-where the water was fresh and sweet. 'Note,' he continues, that in times past there did fal into this gulf the great river Oxus, which hath his springs in the mountains of Paroponisus in India, and now cometh not so far, but falleth into another river called Ardock, which runneth toward the North, and consumeth himself in the grounde, passing undergrounde above 500 miles, and then issueth out againe, and falleth into lake of Kithay.' A little further on he attributes the desiccation of the Oxus to the numerous canals of irrigation it had to supply, and complains that the water that serveth all the countrey is drawen by ditches out of the river Oxus, unto the great destruction of the said river, for which cause it falleth not into the Caspian Sea as it hath done in times past, and in short time all the land is like to be destroied, and to become a wilderness for want of water when the river of Oxus shall faile.' Six or seven weeks later, he says, he crossed the great and rapid river Ardock, a branch of the Oxus, running 1000 miles to the northward,—for half of that distance passing under-ground, then issuing from beneath the earth's surface and terminating in 'the Lake of Kitay.' It is not a little singular that Jenkinson should make no allusion to the Aral as the recipient of the river he calls the Ardock, which could be no other than the main channel of the Oxus, and which some later writers designate as the Khesel or Kizil, that is, the Red River. In Pinkerton's Collection the Khesel is said to take its rise in the mountains to the northeast of Sogdiana, and to fall into the Aral 50 or 60 miles after receiving the Amou. The writer has here evidently confounded the source of the Amou with that of the Syr, but he goes on to explain how the Khesel, which formerly fell into the Caspian at St Peter's Bay, was in 1719 diverted from that channel by the Tatars, in the hope of destroying by thirst the expedition commanded by the gallant but ill-fated Prince Beckovitch. The Dutch Orientalist Bentinck, in his notes to the 'Histoire Généalogique des Tatares'-published in 1720-describes the Oxus as bifurcating about 40 leagues from its embouchure; the left arm turning off to the Caspian, while the right arm, which 80 years previously flowed under the walls of Urghunj, then fell into the Kizil, to the ruin of that once flourishing city, and so passed on to the Aral. Jenkinson's confusion is no doubt attributable to his own ignorance of Persian and Toorkee, and consequent dependence on the intelligence and good faith of his interpreter. That the Oxus did at one time, perhaps at several times, empty itself into the Caspian is a fact that cannot be disputed. The unfortunate Conolly proceeded for some distance up the deserted bed, whose width he estimated at 2000 paces, and General, then Captain Mouravief, met with verdure, reeds, and pools, along the deep broad channel excavated by the mighty river, which seems to have finally divided into two branches strong ice that loaded carts were driven across from one bank to the other. At the commencement of the 15th century the Portuguese ambassador, Ruy Gonzalez de Clavijo, alludes with reverence to the Viadme, as he calls it, and describes it as one of the rivers that descended from Paradise. It attains, he says, a league in width, and traverses a flat country with great and wonderful force, until, at last, it reaches its goal in the Sea of Baku-one of the many names of the Caspian. Its muddy waters, he continues, are lowest in the winter season, when its sources in the mountains are congealed, but in April the melting snows begin to fill its broad, deep bed, and for the next four months it is a noble river. In 1558, Anthony Jenkinson, the shrewd and adventurous representative of the London 'Muscovy Company,' mentions, that on the 5th October he struck' a gulf of the Caspianthough it is far more likely to have been the Aibugir Gulf of the Sea of Aral-where the water was fresh and sweet. Note,' he continues, that in times past there did fal into this gulf the great river Oxus, which hath his springs in the mountains. of Paroponisus in India, and now cometh not so far, but falleth into another river called Ardock, which runneth toward the North, and consumeth himself in the grounde, passing undergrounde above 500 miles, and then issueth out againe, and falleth into lake of Kithay.' A little further on he attributes the desiccation of the Oxus to the numerous canals of irrigation it had to supply, and complains that the water that serveth all the countrey is drawen by ditches out of the river Oxus, unto the great destruction of the said river, for which cause it falleth not into the Caspian Sea as it hath done in times past, and in short time all the land is like to be destroied, and to become a wilderness for want of water when the river of Oxus shall faile.' Six or seven weeks later, he says, he crossed the great and rapid river Ardock, a branch of the Oxus, running 1000 miles to the northward, for half of that distance passing under-ground, then issuing from beneath the earth's surface and terminating in the Lake of Kitay.' It is not a little singular that Jenkinson should make no allusion to the Aral as the recipient of the river he calls the Ardock, which could be no other than the main channel of the Oxus, and which some later writers designate as the Khesel or Kizil, that is, the Red River. In Pinkerton's Collection the Khesel is said to take its rise in the mountains to the northeast of Sogdiana, and to fall into the Aral 50 or 60 miles after receiving the Amou. The writer has here evidently confounded the source of the Amou with that of the Syr, but he goes on to explain how the Khesel, which formerly fell into the Caspian at St Peter's Bay, was in 1719 diverted from that channel by the Tatars, in the hope of destroying by thirst the expedition commanded by the gallant but ill-fated Prince Beckovitch. The Dutch Orientalist Bentinck, in his notes to the 'Histoire Généalogique des Tatares'-published in 1720-describes the Oxus as bifurcating about 40 leagues from its embouchure; the left arm turning off to the Caspian, while the right arm, which 80 years previously flowed under the walls of Urghunj, then fell into the Kizil, to the ruin of that once flourishing city, and so passed on to the Aral. Jenkinson's confusion is no doubt attributable to his own ignorance of Persian and Toorkee, and consequent dependence on the intelligence and good faith of his interpreter. That the Oxus did at one time, perhaps at several times, empty itself into the Caspian is a fact that cannot be disputed. The unfortunate Conolly proceeded for some distance up the deserted bed, whose width he estimated at 2000 paces, and General, then Captain Mouravief, met with verdure, reeds, and pools, along the deep broad channel excavated by the mighty river, which seems to have finally divided into two branches Edited by II. II. Wilson, croft and Mr George Trebeck, from 1819 to 1825. 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. 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