TURCOMAN IRRIGATING WHEEL.
"Much of the region traversed by the Oxus is a desert, and the only agriculture possible there is by irrigation. In order to increase the area under cultivation, the Turcomans built dams that turned the Oxus in the direction of a vast plain which contains the Aral Sea. Since the occupation of the country by the Russians, it has been proposed to return the Oxus to its ancient bed, and bring it down to the Caspian. It is not likely that this will be done, as the result would be that the whole lower course of the Oxus, where there are many flourishing farms and gardens, would again become a desert waste. Much less water flows through the Oxus than in former times, and the engineers who have studied the question do not think the river would be navigable when returned to its ancient bed.
SCENE AT A FERRY ON THE OXUS.
"The other river of Central Asia, the Jaxartes, or Syr Darya, is smaller than the Oxus, and about eleven hundred miles long. It rises in the Pamir region, and empties, like the Oxus, into the Aral Sea. Its course is generally parallel to the Oxus, and in the same way it fertilizes a large area of what would otherwise be desert. Its volume has greatly diminished in the last few centuries, and is even known to be considerably less than it was sixty or eighty years ago. The Oxus enters the southern end of the Aral Sea, while the Jaxartes comes in considerably farther to the north. The diversion of these two rivers would probably result in drying up the Aral Sea, a shallow body of water two hundred and fifty miles long by half as many wide."
MAP OF THE RUSSO-AFGHAN REGION.
Fred asked if the Caspian was higher or lower than the Aral Sea.