Many contrivances are used to cross the rivers of High Asia. Where the current is sluggish an inflated goatskin is employed. This system is in vogue on the Oxus and, in lesser degree, on the Helmund, where rafts of bushes are preferred. Along the Murghab the indifferent nature of the fords and the swiftness of the current in the narrow channels of the river make the use of a boat, drawn along a hawser, more suited to the needs of the occasion. Fords on the Murghab are not so frequent as on the Oxus.
The Kushk Valley extends in Russian and Afghan territory some 14 miles. It possesses an average breadth of three-quarters of a mile. Its hills, low and rounded, are a conglomerate of clay and red sand, but bare of trees and with their faces dotted with mud-cabins. An extensive system of irrigation is fed by the river and there is much cultivation on the tops and sides of the hills. The produce of the fields is only sufficient for the immediate wants of the native settlers, although the Russians hope, now a garrison has been established at Kushkinski Post, that the demands of the troops will spur the villagers to greater agricultural activity. In Afghan territory the valley is the habitat of the Jamshidis, who, quiet and tractable, reveal few wants and even fewer interests. Excessive irrigation has done so much to spread the fever that the population throughout the valley has been dwindling gradually. There are now less than 4000 families in the entire valley, years of peace and prosperity seeming to accentuate the restlessness which underlies the nature of all nomadic people. A weekly bazaar is held at Kushkinski Post; similar gatherings taking place at Afghan Kushk, Bala Murghab, Maruchak and in the Pendjeh oasis at Takhta Bazaar. Salt, rice, soap, carpets and horses are all brought to the markets, while the Russians encourage the native merchants under their protection to display stocks of Russian sugar, matches and cotton prints. Silks from Meshed and Bokhara are also in evidence, but nothing of any English or Indian origin. French, American and German products are barred no less rigorously, although German matches and French sugar occasionally escape the specific ostracism which applies to British manufactures.
In the Kushk valley the fertility of the land is dependent upon the flooding of the river by the spring rains. As a consequence an ever-present feeling of irritation exists in the lower parts of the Kushk valley against the Afghan villagers, who control the head waters of the river and divert it to their own fields. This difficulty prevails along the entire line of the frontier in this region, the demarcation of the boundary between the two races leaving the heads of the canals in Afghan territory. There are many exceptions to the misfortune, and, so far as possible, the division is arranged in a spirit of mutual ownership, although the natives, on the Russian side of the frontier, have no claim to compensation if there should be an insufficient quantity. With a river like the Kushk, which possesses an irregular volume, the difficulty is much greater than in the case of the Murghab or even the Hari Rud. Water means to these primitive peoples life and existence; and, as cultivation is only rendered possible by most assiduous irrigation, the task of conserving the supply involves incessant labour. Although agricultural activity prevails principally in the Murghab and Kushk district there are a few cultivated places in the Kashan valley. It would be useless to make any comparison between the former valleys and the Kashan. The Kashan valley contains a small strip, level, well watered and about half a mile in width, through which percolates a narrow stream. In spite of its culturable soil the Kashan district is not frequently inhabited, as in the extreme hot weather the Kashan river is exhausted by the claims made upon it for purposes of irrigation; below Robat-i-Kashan, except during the spring floods, there is no trace of water. A similar condition of affairs characterises its companion stream the Kushk; at the point of union with the Murghab it is frequently reduced to a mere trickle. None the less during the spring rains each of these rivers is liable to sudden floods. Prior to the advent of the railway at Tanur Sangi there were but few settlements in the valley. There was one at Karawal Khana on the right bank of the Murghab and 12 miles south of Maruchak, while the next of any consequence was at Bala Murghab, upon the same bank and more than 20 miles away from Maruchak. At the time when the Anglo-Russian Commission was adjusting the line of the Russo-Afghan frontier in this region, the absence of habitation and human settlement of any kind was most marked. Time has brought a change.
Tanur Sangi is now one of the termini of the Murghab valley railway. Barracks for the troops who are occupying the post have been built on the heights of the valley, the dense vegetation has been burnt off and a system of drainage applied to the neighbouring swamps. For the moment the Maruchak district, extending equally within Russian and Afghan territory, is pregnant with prospects and the advent of the Russians there has been followed by an influx of native settlers. Upon the Afghan side of the river there are similar indications, by reason of the arrival of the levies who garrison the Afghan forts at Bala Murghab, Maruchak, Kala Nao and elsewhere.
BOKHARAN TRADERS AT PENDJEH
The river is the dividing-point between Russian and Afghan possessions at Maruchak for 15 miles. Still it is interesting to note that the natural frontier between Maruchak and Pendjeh is at the northern end of the Maruchak valley, where the hills, closing in upon the river on both sides, separate the Maruchak acres from those of the Pendjeh oasis. Formerly, too, the Murghab flowed down the northern end of the Maruchak valley, washing the western face. It has now changed its course and, sweeping from west to east, washes the eastern aspect. This deviation had an important bearing upon the findings of the Anglo-Russian Commission. Under their correct and literal interpretation of the protocol the Russians were debarred from exercising any claim over the waters of canals employed for irrigation, provided their heads were in Afghan territory. By the change in the direction of the Murghab the head of the waters supplying the Pendjeh oasis, which proceed from the Band-i-Nadir canal on the left bank of the Murghab, was placed within Afghan territory. A modification of the situation was urged; finally the boundary was made to pass from Zulfikar on the Hari Rud to the Kushk and from the head of the canal in the Kashan valley to the head of the Band-i-Nadir on the Murghab, due west of Maruchak instead of to a point north of it. This re-adjustment permitted control of the head waters of the Band-i-Nadir to revert to Russia.
