Journal of the Royal United
Service Institution
VOL. XIX. 1875. No. LXXX.
LECTURE.
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occasion snow had fallen a foot in depth. Sand hills
covered the surface of the ground; bushes of camel thorn
were profusely scattered among the sand hills; nor were
thickets of tamarisk wanting. The greater part of the
tract was stated to be safe to travelers provided with
passes. But here and there caution was needed, such, for
instance, as in the vicinity of a well about the fourth
march, noted for forays from Deregez. One short passage
may be extracted in the narrator's own words. "
The aspect of the desert, or rather wilderness, from Merv to Khiva " is
that of a sandy plain, broken into the most irregular
surface by " deep pits and high mounds, the whole
thinly sprinkled with bushes of three several kinds,
between which grow wormwood and the camel thorn. On
approaching Khiva, the surface is often ploughed into
ravines and ridges, whose course is north and south,
giving some idea of abandoned watercourses, and
traditionally reported to be old channels of the Oxus.
The ridges are gravelly, but there is no want “of
sand. Wells on this route are found at long intervals, in
one case “of 160 miles. The water is generally
brackish, but there are exceptions. On approaching Khiva,
there appeared a very thin sprinkling “of grass,
which our horses eagerly devoured. But no dependence Is
“to be placed upon the pasture of this wilderness,
and the traveler “must provide barley, or jowdri,
sufficient to supply the place of "fodder."
Shakespeare states that the regular road to Khiva crosses the River Murghab,
close to the town. As the boat was injured, and the
water was deep, he had to proceed in search of a ford.
Abbott, on starting, crossed a dry channel. This apparent
discrepancy may be attributed to the different conditions
under which the two traveled; Abbott was at Merv in
January, or the depth of winter, Shakespeare late in May,
when the hot season had nearly set in. But there may be,
and doubtless are, several
branches of the Murghab conveying its waters to the
desert below Merv, and some of these may take their
rise above that place. Shakespeare's first march was of
12 miles to a Turkmen
Khail, during which no river-crossing was affected. He
afterwards moved in two marches of 16 and 17 miles,
respectively, or 33 miles in the 24 hours, then only reaching the
River Murghab, or, it may be fairly assumed, the main
branch of the river. Marching the next morning along the
bank for 15 miles, he crossed at an excellent ford, where
the stream was about 30 yards wide, 3 feet deep, and
there was a hard bottom. In the evening he started again,
intending to make a long march, but at 5 miles he came
upon another stream with quicksand.
In the morning a third stream met him
at 4 miles, when ho had difficulty in finding a good ford
; and 15 miles farther he found a fourth stream, nearly
as large as the first, which detained him two hours. It
is to fee observed, therefore, that modern Merv , such as it is,
— in all probability a miserable relic in its
reality, — is on
the left bank of a main branch of the Murghab; and
that Shakespeare crossed that main branch at 60 miles,
but did not clear the river wholly until 84 miles north
of the town. We have not the recorded bearings, but as we
know that the party was bound for Khiva via the Oxus, and
that they
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