JAXARTES, the Jihiln of the Arabs, the Syr Darya or head-river, has its source in the very heart of the Tian Shan. In its upper course it is called the Narin, which has its chief head-stream at the foot of the Petroo glacier in the Ak Shiirak Hills. It passes 400 miles westward, then enters the khanate of Khokand, which it crosses for 300 miles in a S.W. direction. Re entering Russian territory again, it soon turns due north 400 miles, after which it meanders N.W. to its outlets on the N.E. of Lake Aral. Its total length is 1500 miles. In the lower 400 miles of its course to Like Aral there are many islets, and the country is disposed in long, low undulat ing surfaces of clay, interspersed with stretches of sand, and dotted with occasional sand hills. Amongst the princes from the Jaxartes are historians, poets, astronomers, founders of systems of government and religion, warriors, and great captains, who claim our respect and admiration. Chengiz Khan and his bands issued from the pastoral lands beyond this river. On the eastern side of Central Asia is a fertile tract, watered by the Jaxartes and the Oxus, and it is in this fertile tract that the conquests of Russia were made between 1864 and 1868. After long years spent in fortifying posts, Russia, in 1864, made a sudden irruption into the upper valley of the Jaxartes, and in that year took three forts of Khokand,viz. Aoulietta,Turkestan, and Chemkend.
In the spring of 1865, the chief of Khokand fell in battle, and in June 1865 the city of Tashkend was stormed. On the 20th May 1866, they fought and won the battle of Irdjar, against the Bokh ariotes, and later in the year captured the forts of Oratepe and Juzak, within 40 miles of Samarcand. On the 13th May 1868, a great battle was fought •under the walls of and the city stir rendered, and later in the year Bokhara yielded —Asia, by Keane and Temple, p. 406 ; Fortnightly Rev., July 1868.
JAY, an English name for species of the Gar rulinte, all noisy birds. Garrulus bispecularis, Vigors, is the Himalayan jay ; G. lanceolatus, Vigors, is the black-throated jay. In wooded situations, on the western ranges of the N.W. Himalaya, the traveller is struck with the cha racteristic and elegant long-tailed jay, Calositta (Urocissa) Sinensis, Linn. This graceful creature attracts attention not only by the brilliancy of its plumage, but the loud, harsh screams it utters as the traveller approaches, now jerking up its long tail, after the manner of the magpie, now garru lously chattering, as though reproaching one for intruding on its haunts.—Adants. See Birds.