According to Sir Henry Rawlinson, the Oxus, from D.C. 600 to A.D. 500, with the Jaxartes, emptied itself into the Caspian, and the .Aral as an inland sea did not then exist. Even in A.D. 570, the Aral was only a reedy marsh ; and it was not till quite thirty years later that the influx of the Oxus caused it to swell out in the hollow in which it now lies. In 1224 the Oxus again forced its way into the Caspian, and the And dried np once mere, exposing the ruins of cities which had been swallowed up during its previous expansion. In 1330 the river was described by an eastern traveller as flowing into the Caspian close to the mouth of the Atrek ; and the accuracy of this is attested by the remains of the bed which General Abbott saw in 1840. During the whole of the 14th century the Oxus poured itself into the Caspian, while its fellow-stream, the Jaxartee, was swallowed up in the sands. In the 15th century, Ruy Gonzalez do Clavigo describes it as being a noble river, 'three miles in breadth, very deep, and traversing with wonderful force a flat country before falling into the Caspian.' In 1720 a Dutch geographer speaks of the river as having two branches, one flowing into the Caspian and the other into the Aral. Travellers like Anthony Jenkinson, English officers employed last century in and Rne„sian explorers of recent date, one and all are agreed that the Amu Darya up to very recent times flowed into the Caspian Sea. The river never confined itself to any particular outlet, but during a series of centuries scored one opening and then another in the soft, sandy cliffs that stretch between Persia and Kraanovodsk. Strabo and Pliny both mention that in the early days of the Christian era the merchandise of India used to come down the Oxus to the Caspiau, whence it WAS conveyed up the river Kurr on the one side of the Caucasus, and down the river Rion on the other, till the Black Sea and Europe were finally reached. The deflection of the Oxus is due solely to that normal habit of changing its bed which characterises not only the Oxus but the Syr Darya also, and most of the other and minor rivers of Central Asia. The sands stretching
between Persia and Siberia are so soft, and the volume of water poured down from the buttresses of the Pamir so vast at certain seasons of the year, that it is a most natural thing for is river to leave its cutting, and plough a fresh passage through the desert. If the course of the stream be controlled, the merchandise of China and Tibet might once more flow down with the current to the Caspian, thence to be distributed by Russia over Europe. Goods shipped into lighters at Cronstadt could circulate along the northern canal system and the Volga to Kraanovodsk, and thence could be transported up the river Oxus, either via the Syr Darya branch to Tashkend, Khokand,anc.1 Kashgaria, or via the parent stream to Khiva, Bokhara, and Afghanistan.
Alexander crossed the Oxus on inflated skins, but there are now numerous boats at the ferries of Khojah Saleh, 800 yards wide ; at Char-Jui, leading to Merv, 650 yards wide ; at Kirki, where Vambery crossed on his way to Herat. The boats used on the river are built alike at both ends, with bows projecting very much, so as to stretch easily from the shallows to the shore. They are made of the squared logs of a dwarf jungle tree, fastened together with iron clamps. Most of them attain a length of 50 feet, with a beam of 18, a depth of 4 feet, a displacement of barely 12 inches of water, and a tonnage of about 20 tons, rendering them capable of con veying 150 soldier passengers. Notwithstanding their clumsy build, they are strong and durable, and both Timur and Nadir Shah employed them for making bridges, over which their hosts passed in safety. The river is said to have been known to the Arabs as the Jihun, derived from the Turki CEgus or (Ekus, a river. The Greek Okos has been supposed to be from the Wakhsh or Uztkhsh. —Asia, by Keane and Temple, p. 403 ; Vambery's Bokhara, p. 27 ; Trotter's Central Asia ; TVood.