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CHAPTER II.
THE AMOU DARYA.[1]
Every large river has a history of some kind or another; but few rivers have one so interesting as that of the Amou Darya, the Oxus of the ancients. There is none certainly in Central Asia that can vie with it either in point of historical associations or of present practical utility. In olden days it was the Oxus alone which made Khwaresm one of the most fertile countries in Western Asia, and which rendered the dynasty of the Chaghtai Khans respectable as well as formidable among its neighbours; and at the present time it is to the Oxus that some of the more prudent and foreseeing of Russians look for that prosperity which is as yet unknown to Khiva and Kara Kum. The Russian authorities have extended a benevolent patronage to the schemes of these persons, both because if they ever became realised they must materially facilitate military operations, and at the least, if those
- ↑ See Sir H. Rawlinson's monograph on the Oxus; and Major Wood's "Shores of Lake Aral."
