388 ADDITIONAL NOTICES. [June 27, 1859. 



materially added to our knowledge of the inland sea in question. Colonel 

 Berg in 1825-6 ascertained the existence of an elevated region on its western 

 side, continuous with the spurs of the Ural on the north, the height of which 

 has rendered it very improbable that the Aral and Caspian Seas have ever 

 been united during the historic period — at any rate toward their northern por- 

 tions. M. Lamansky aftbrds us a general description of the great basin named 

 Turan, in which the Sea of Aral lies — bounded as it is by the chain of heights 

 already mentioned on the west, by the Hindu Kush and its offsets on the 

 south, the Bolor Tagh on the east, and finally on the north by the southern 

 slope of the Ural Mountains, and being identical with the greater portion of 

 what is called Independent Tartary. His description of the Sea of Aral itself 

 is the following : — " The Sea of Aral is situated between lat. 43" 42' 41" and 

 46° 44' 42" N., and long. 58° 18' 47" and 61° 46' 4" e. (of Greenwich). It is 

 almost equal in length and breadth, excepting a part of it on the north-east, 

 which stretches deep into the country, forming a large bay nearly surrounded 

 by land, and bearing the name of the * Little Sea/ to distinguish it from the 

 principal body of water called the ' Great Sea.' The superficies of the latter 

 is about 1000 square geographical miles. Its depth in its centre is fifteen 

 fathoms, and goes on augmenting towards its western shore ; near its islands, 

 as well as towards its north, east, and south shores, the depth gradually dimi- 

 nishes. The borders of this sea present the appearance of a gloomy desert : 

 in summer, except in some places on the eastern and southern sides, they are 

 uninhabited ; in winter the Kirghises encamp especially on the northern and 

 eastern sides, and on some of the islands. The northern coast is composed in 

 a great part of argillaceous and saline formations (terrain salin), which rise 

 100 to 300 English feet above the level of the sea, and, declining to the north, 

 sink into the great sandy plain of Barsonki. The western coast is sharply 

 defined by the limits of the Oust-Oust plateau. Under the name of Oust- 

 Oust is known the isthmus which separates the Caspian from the Sea of Aral. 

 This isthmus has the form of a level plain, the height of which is nearly 600 

 feet above the surface of the two (?) seas. It is limited by abrupt and lofty 

 banks. The officers attached to the expedition of Colonel Berg, Messrs, Anjou, 

 Lagoskine, and Duhamel, determined barometrically the difference of level 

 between the Caspian Sea at Mertvoi-Koultouk and the Sea of Aral, the dis- 

 tance between the two being 245 kilometres (152 miles) direct east, in the 

 latitude of 42° n. The result established that the level of the Sea of Aral is 

 117*6 English feet above that of the Caspian. The level of the latter sea, as 

 decided by the labours of the astronomers Fuss, Sawitsch, and Sabler, of the 

 Academy of St. Petersburg, is 84 English feet below that of the Black Sea. 

 The respective differences in the level of the three seas are, — Black Sea, ; Cas- 

 pian Sea, —84 feet ; Sea of Aral, -h 37* 6 feet. On the south and east of the Sea 

 of Aral the shores are low, sandy, and covered in parts with reeds and briers " 

 (pp. 19-21). The great rivers flowing into the Sea of Aral, the Syr-Daria 

 (Jaxartes) and its affluents, and the Amon-Daria or Jyhoon (Oxus), are next 

 described ; and the rest of the treatise is occupied with descriptions of the 

 khanats of Kokan, Khiva, and Bukhara, their inhabitants, state of civilization, 

 and political organization. In this portion the following passage occurs : — " In 

 1850 the Khan of Khiva formed a battalion of regular troops with a certain 

 number of pieces of cannon. Eye-witnesses who have seen the artillery at 

 practice, have said that, out of a hundred artillerymen, not one could hit a 

 mark fifty paces distant ; and it was not an ordinary target that was used, 

 but an isolated height. The Khivans are, however, pretty tolerable marks- 

 men with their long muskets. As to the total number of troops, it is said 

 that the Khan of Khiva can bring into the field nearly 25,000 horsemen 

 armed with sabres and lances : of this number, however, not more than 5000 

 are furnished with muskets. The bravery of the Khivans, as of all other 



