The lake itself was not more than nine feet deep in the centre, and the water was of a reddish colour, with a slightly fetid smell; the bottom being oozy and tangled with weeds. An attempt to measure the breadth of the lake by the carriage of sound entirely failed through the tenuity of the atmosphere. 'A musket loaded with blank cartridge, sounded as if the charge had been poured into the barrel, and neither wads nor ramrod used. When ball was introduced the report was louder, but possessed none of the sharpness that marks a similar charge in denser atmospheres. The ball, however, could be distinctly heard whizzing through the air.' Conversation could not be kept up. A run at full speed for a distance of fifty yards produced pain in the lungs, and prostration that lasted for some hours. Some of the party were dizzy with headache, and any sort of muscular exertion became very soon distressing. The pulse rose in some instances to 124 beats in the minute, and in none was less than 110.

The line of perpetual snow is here a little over 17,000 feet. By the end of June the ice is broken up and the hills clear of snow, when the surface of the lake is covered with aquatic birds. 'The grass of Pameer they (the Kirghiz) tell you is so rich that a sorry horse is here brought into good condition in less than twenty days; and its nourishing qualities are evidenced in the productiveness of their ewes, which almost invariably bring forth two lambs at a time. Their flocks and herds roam over an unlimited extent of swelling grassy hills of the sweetest and richest pasture, while their yaks luxuriate amid the snow at no great distance above their encampment on the plains.'

The Amou, or Oxus, in its upper course is formed by the confluence of four rivers, traced by Colonel Yule with characteristic conciseness and lucidity. I. The Surkh-ab, or Kizil-su— literally, Red Water-rises in the Alai steppe which it drains, receiving from the left the river Muk, and rushes through the

almost unknown Karategeen district, in a deep channel between narrow gorges, The population of this state is estimated at 100,000 souls, of the Galchas race, speaking Persian. No trade of any kind seems to be carried on. The Khan claims descent from Alexander the Great, and the country is supposed to have been formerly peopled by the Parotace or Parœtaceni. It was conquered in the early part of the present century by the Khan of Darwaz, who expelled the native princes, but it appears that they have since recovered their ancient possessions. Horses and cattle are bred in considerable numbers, and sufficient corn is grown for home use. Gold washing, working the salt mines, and the manufacture of very tolerable iron, furnish employment for those who are not engaged in agricultural pursuits. Leaving Karategeen the Surkh-ab flows through Kulab, coincident with the old provinces of Wakhsh and Kotl, and which in the palmy days of the Arabs was full of trade and industry, both of which are now neglected. The Surkh-ab then joins the Panja above the junction of the Kokcha, near the little town of Kurghan Tapah or Tippah.

II. The Panja is formed by the confluence of two streams near Fort Panja, 10,000 feet above the sea. These streams descend from Pameer: the one, named Darah-i-Sir-i-Kul, issues from Lake Victoria, whence it hastens down for sixty-five to seventy miles, till it joins Captain Wood's 'Stream of Sarhad,' coming from the Sarhad Wakhat, or Wakhan Marches, and proceeding from a lakelet known as the Barkat, or Pool, of Yassin. The course of this stream is about 100 miles in length, passing through a very narrow valley, well peopled towards the lower end, the inhabitants living in contiguous houses of stone or mud, warmed by stoves-the Po-mi-lo valley of Hiouen Tsang. From the Panja Fort, the river of that name flows for sixty-six miles through a valley varying in width from a few hundred yards to a mile. At the western extremity of Wakhan

the Panja makes an elbow, enclosing the ruby mines, and then turns to the north, skirting Shighnan, Roshan, and Darwaz.

III. The Kokcha, a less considerable stream, deriving its name from the colour of its waters- Kok' in Toorkee signifying 'blue'—is formed above the Fyzabad defiles by the confluence of two little rivers from the Jerm and Vardoj valleys. It then forces its way through a narrow gorge, called the Tangi, or Strait of Badakhshan, and receiving several tributaries falls into the Amou near the fertile plain of Cha-ab.

IV. The Aksarai, called also the Surkh-ab for some distance from its source, descends from the Bamian Pass. Near Ghori the valley opens out, and at Kunduz the river takes the name of Aksarai, and joins the Amou about 160 miles above Khojasaleh.

The respective courses of these different rivers are thus estimated by Colonel Yule. I. The Surkh-ab, from its probable source in the Karategeen highlands to the mouth of the Aksarai, 400 miles. II. The Panja, from the Barkat Yassin to the same point, 425 miles. III. The Kokcha, from the probable source of the Jerm river, 225 miles. IV. The Bamian Surkh-ab, or Aksarai, 220 miles. The entire length of the Amou from Barkat Yassin to the Aral is thus about 1400 miles, allowing 200 miles for windings.

The difficulty raised by the Court of St Petersburg to the adoption of the Panja as the line of demarcation between Central Asia and the dependencies of Afghanistan may be partly, perhaps principally, traced to an extraordinary geographical swindle apparently perpetrated by the learned orientalist Klaproth. On the 14th August, 1806, the archives of the Russian War Office were enriched by elaborate maps, with thirty astronomical determinations of position, together with the journal of a certain Freiherr Georg Ludwig von - (the name being left blank), who pretended to have been deputed by

the Indian government at the close of the last century to purchase horses in Toorkestan. For Anglo-Indian readers the bare statement carries its own contradiction, but the Russian government found it convenient to be credulous, and, seemingly without further inquiry, adopted the geographical reports of this anonymous and apocryphal traveller.

In 1821, Julius Henry Von Klaproth translated the itinerary of a Chinese traveller through Eastern Toorkestan, harmonizing with Freiherr Georg Ludwig's 'personal' observations. At a somewhat later period Lord Strangford discovered in the Foreign Office in Downing Street a manuscript report of a Russian expedition through Central Asia to the frontiers of India accomplished in the beginning of this century, and which had been secretly purchased from Klaproth. Subsequently it was ascertained that these three several narratives were evidently written to illustrate a Chinese map constructed by the Jesuit missionaries in square blocks, one of which, containing Wakhan, Badakshan, Pameer, Roshan, and Shighnan, had been accidentally placed the wrong way, the horizontal sides being turned vertical, or 90° degees out of their proper position. Since the exposure of this error by Sir Henry Rawlinson and Colonel Yule, the Russian government, as well as our own, has been compelled to acknowledge the inaccuracy of its maps, and to replace these districts where nature originally fixed them. M. Veniukof would hardly now declare that 'whoever is ruler of Bolor and Badakhshan is in a position not only to dictate to the Chinese at Kashgar and Yarkund, but also is master of the road that leads to India.'

CHAPTER XVIII.

THE KHIVAN EXPEDITION.

COLONEL MARKOSOF'S RECONNAISSANCE IN 1872-DIPLOMATIC CORRESPONDENCE-ADVANCE OF GENERAL GOLOF'S CORPS-A GRAND DUKE UNDER FELT-FRIENDLINESS OF THE BOKHARIANS-SKIRMISH WITH TOORKOMANS-REPULSE OF THE KHIVANS--PASSAGE OF THE AMOU—OCCUPATION OF HAZARASP-FALL OF KHIVA-GENERAL VEREFKIN'S MARCHCOLONEL LOMAKIN'S MARCH-COLONEL MARKOSOF'S DISASTER-SUBMISSION OF THE

KHAN-PEACE-DISTRIBUTION OF HONOURS-SIR HENRY LAWRENCE ON A RUSSIAN INVASION OF INDIA-SIR THOMAS MUNRO ON OUR TREATMENT OF THE NATIVES-CONCLUSION.

IN the autumn of 1872, a small Russian force, consisting of 1000 foot, 300 horse, and six guns, under the command of Colonel Markosof, marched out from Krasnovodsk, on the Caspian, and advanced without molestation to the borders of the Khivan territories. The object of this expedition was simply to effect a reconnaissance, and it so far succeeded that it obtained practical experience of the suddenness of Toorkoman onslaught. Too contemptuous of the enemy to send out skirmishers, Colonel Markosof found himself in a moment in the midst of a cloud of cavalry, and was glad to escape with the loss of 150 camels and nearly all his horses. The numbers of the killed and wounded are seldom published by the Russians, and never correctly.

The question of peace or war, if not previously determined, was necessarily decided by this repulse, for in the East a disaster can never safely be allowed to pass unremedied and unavenged. At the same time there can be no doubt, notwithstanding Prince Gortchakof's protestations and denials, that