1842.
Wood's Journal to the River Oxus.
145
faster than my own. The cause of this increased circulation immediately occurred to me; and when we afterwards commenced marching towards Wakhan, I felt the pulses of the party whenever I registered the boiling point of water. The motion of the blood is in fact a sort of living barometer, by which a man acquainted with his own habit of body can, in great altitudes, roughly calculate his height above the sea." Pages 358-363.
The proximity of the valley of the Oxus to the frontiers of the Chi- nese empire, the fact of its having been, and of its now being, one of the routes frequented by travelers in passing to and from China through Central Asia, together with the interest attaching to the country itself and its inhabitants, have induced us to call the atten- tion of our readers to lieutenant Wood's exceedingly interesting nar- rative. But it would be incompatible with the object of our work to dwell long on its details. The course of the river from its source, Sir-i-kol, is to the west or northwest, till it falls into the sea of Aral, after traversing a distance of upwards of one thousand miles. "West of Khulin, the valley of the Oxus, except on the immediate banks of the stream, appears to be a desert; but in an opposite direction, east- ward to the rocky barriers of Darwaz, all the high-lying portion of the valley is at this season (20th March) a wild prairie of sweets, a verdant carpet enameled with flowers. The low swelling out- lines of Kunduz are as soft to the eye as the verdant sod which car- pets them, is to the foot." Kunduz is the capital of Murad Beg, the head of the Usbek state, who holds dominion, nominal at least, over the whole, or nearly the whole of the valley eastward to the 'Roof of the World.' Concerning the Usbeks, the Tajiks, the Kirghis, and the Kaffirs, lieut. Wood has added most valuable information, to the little hitherto known of them and their country.
•
In chapter sixteen, page 249, he notices Khan Khojá, a Moham- medan ruler of Kashgár and Yárkand, who having been drive nfrom his dominions, about a century back, took shelter in Badakshan, bringing with him 40,000 followers. The Khoja was killed at
Reishkhan.
The mines of lapis-lazuli were visited, and are minutely described, by lieut. Wood. They are situated to the southward from Jerm. The ruby mines, on the north or right bank of the Oxus, he failed to reach; but he gives some account of them, derived from native sources. Of the animal and vegetable productions of the valley, his work contains many interesting notices, coinciding with those given by Marco Polo. See Marsden's edition, pp. 129, 141, &c.
Kaffirstan is situated south from Badakshan, and west from Chitral,
VOL XI. NO. III.
19
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.