The KUM Feroz river, across which Anair Aszacn Delemi built the Band-i-amir (Bend - amir). I. is the Aras, a modern name of the ancient Araxes, the Awerma of the Puranas. It laves the foot of the rock Istakhr. The snowy Ardegan mountainS are the same with those which presented so for midable a barrier to Alexander's progress, and by whose slopes he descended into Persia in his advance on Persepolis. The sources of the Aras and those of the north branch of the Euphrates are about ten miles from one another. Pliny stated that those sources are in the same moun tain, and 600 paces asunder. This river at its commencement, owing to its many affluents, bears the Persian appellation of Hazara. It springs from the side of the Bin Gol, or Mountain of a Thousand Lakes, about 30 miles south of Erzerum, and nearly in the centre of the space between the ea.stem and western branches of the Euphrates. Its course, from its first spring near Jabal Seiban, is almost north-east for about 145 miles through Armenia, when it turns eastward, being then near the frontier of Kars. This proximity continues for 110 miles. In modern times, the north-eastern districts, along the banks of the Araxes, inter vening between Aderbijan and Georgia, have been in general subject to the sovereigns of Persia.
Central Asia, between India and Tartary, is one broad mountain range, the Himalaya form ing the southern crest, and the Kouen Lun the northern. The interior has some lovely valleys like Kashmir, but it is more usually broken into rocky ravines, through which affluents of the Indus force their way towards the plains ; or else stretches away in those vast treeless upla.nds, which are one of the chief characteristics of the range through its whole extent. The direction of this range is from east to west, trending slightly to the north, while tbe parallel chain that bounds Siberia to the south, and the outer crest of which is the Tian Shan, trends somewhat to the south ; so that at a short distance to the west of Yarkand and Kashgar, the great interior depression of Chinese Tartary terminates, and the boundary ranges coalesce in the elevated table-land of Pamir. The ascent from Yarkand and Kashgar westward to the table-land of Pamir is almost imperceptible ; and when that lofty position is gained, where the average eleva tion is probably as much as 15,000 feet above the sea, a vast open plain is seen, which stretches from the valley of the Jaxartes (Syr Darya.) in one direction, across the head - streams of the Oxus (Amu Darya), to the top of the ICashigar or Chitral valley in another. This plateau may. be 700 or 800 miles in extent. It is studded throughout with lakes, and from it descend four great river systems. The Narym, which is the main stream of the Jaxartes, runs through a long, luxuriant valley, between the culminating ridge and outer range of the Tian Shan, and draixts. all the northern range of the plateau. The Oxus, rising in the Sari Kul or Yellov,, Lake of Pamir, at least 300 miles to the south of the Jaxartes, receives from its right bank a multitude of small streams, which run to tbe south through rugged valleys, on the south Western face of the Pamir uplands. The western face \of Pamir between the Jaxartes and the Oxus is faemore precipitous than the eastern. Ridges
run out as far as Samarcand and Karshi, and the streams from the upland which twine amongst these ridges form the Zar-afshan and Karshi part of the water system of the Oxus, though before they reach that river they are entirely consumed in irrigation.
The Indus. water system is formed on the south - eastern extremity of Pamir, where the table-land is lost in tho rocky summits of Muz Tagh, and a number of streams drain off to the southward, forming two aubsidiary Indus systems. A culminating ridge, Pusbt-i-khar, or Aas's Back, which runs out from the south-east corner of Pamir, is the true watershed between Tibet and Kabul, tho streams flowing to the southward being separated by tho shoulder which joins tho Ilindu Kush front the streams descending through Vakkan and Badakhshan to tho Oxus, and forming tho Kabul river, which falls into the Indus at Attock ; while those that flow to tho south-cast and aro divided by the Muz Tagh range from Tartary, descend through a series of rocky valleys and precipitous gorges into the Upper Indus at Little Tibet.
Front tho eastern face of tho Pamir, again, which slopes off very gradually into the plains of Tartary, is supplied a fourth water system, in the form of a series of sinall streams, which, passing by Yarkand and Kashgar, aro ultimately lost in the aandy desert, or in some eases reach the central lake of Lob Nor.
The basins of the Amu and Syr Darya are partly in Russian, partly in Persian territory, and partly in that of Afghan Turkestan, under chiefs bubordinato to tho Amir of Kabul, and aro largely occupied by Turk, Turkoman, and Iranian races, tho two former being almost all of them nomades and predatory. The sources of theao rivers are in the table-land of Pamir, and those of tho Amu, first seen by Lieutenant Wood in the early part of tho 19th century, have since been visited by other explorers.
The huhu; is a magnificent river ; it rises in the Kailas or Gangri range, in lat. 31° 20' N., and long. 80° 30' E., 1700 feet above tho sea, and has a course of about 1977 miles. It is known in tho Tibetan of Ladakh it8 the Tsang-po, tho Sam-po ho of the Chinese Pilgrim Iliwen Thsang. A few miles from Leh it receives the Zanskar river, and its bed at Pitak below Leh is 10,500 feet above the sea. At Mittunkot, the Indus is often 2000 yards broad, and near this place, in lat. 28°55' N., and long. 70° 28' E., it is joined without violence by tho Panjnad, a large navigable stream, the collected waters of the Sutlej, Bees, Ravi, Chenab, and Jhelum, after which its bed never shallows in the dry season to less than fifteen feet, and seldom preserves so great a breadth as half a mile. The whole length of its mountain course from its source to Attack is about 1035 miles, and the whole fall is 1G,000 feet, or 15.4 feet per mile. From Attock to the sea, the length is 942 miles. Its maximum discharge, above the confluence of the Panjnad, occurs in July and August, when it is swollen by the seasonal rains, and it then reaches 135,000 cubic feet, falling to its minimum of 15,000 in December. Up to this confluence it is known by various names, viz.: Sam-po.ho, . . . CHIN. Saincl'hara, . . SANSK. Sin Tow, Sing-go-obu, TIBETAN.