WINTER CAMP IN TURCOMANIA.
"There is no navigation worth the name," was the reply. "Central Asia contains only two rivers of any importance—the Oxus and the Jaxartes. The Oxus is sometimes called the Amoo Darya, or Jihoon, and the Jaxartes the Syr Darya. The Oxus is the largest; it rises in the Pamir district, in a lake fifteen thousand feet above the sea, and in the upper part of its course receives several tributary rivers that drain Bokhara and the north-eastern part of Afghanistan. It is about twelve hundred miles long, and flows into the Aral Sea; for the last eight hundred miles of its course it is navigable for small steamboats, but its mouth is divided into so many shallow channels that boats have great difficulty in entering it. The Russians have half a dozen steamers on the Aral Sea, and as many more light-draught steamboats for navigating the Oxus."
"Haven't I read that the Oxus formerly emptied into the Caspian Sea?" said Frank.
"Quite likely you have," said Mr. Ivanovich, "as there is little doubt that such was the case. The old bed of the Oxus can be distinctly traced, and geographers are generally agreed that the river entered the Caspian by three mouths. Ptolemy and Strabo both state distinctly that in their time the Oxus flowed into the Caspian, and formed the principal trade-route between Europe and Asia."
"How came it to change its course?"
