May 25, 1876] 



NATURE 



67 



Aral and the regions around it in 1874, having been 

 allowed to accompany an expedition sent out under the 

 auspices of the Russian Geographical Society to examine 

 the Amudarj'a. The results of this visit, as contained in 

 the masterly work under notice, show that he took excellent 

 advantage of so favourable an opportunity. Some of the 

 most important of these results as regards the past and pre- 

 sent physical condition of the Aralo-Caspian region were 

 described by Major Wood in three papers which appeared 

 in Nature, vol. xi. p. 229, and vol. xii. pp. 51 and 313. 

 To these papers we would refer those who want to get a 

 succinct idea of some of the important conclusions which 

 Major Wood has reached ; but all who take an interest 

 in physical geography generally, and this region in par- 

 ticular, we would advise to procure the work under 

 notice. 



The two main points discussed by Major Wood are the 

 past and present condition of the Amudarj'a or Oxus, and 

 the existence at one time of a great Asiatic fresh-water 

 Mediterranean Sea, of which the Black Sea, the Caspian, 

 and Lake Aral are only remnants, and having communi- 

 cation by the region to the north of the last-mentioned 

 lake with the Arctic Ocean. How small a change in 

 the present conditions of the Black Sea would serve to 

 give rise to such a great inland sea as Major Wood, on 

 good grounds, supposes once to have spread its waters 

 f ver a wide extent of Asia and Europe, may be seen from 

 the following extract : — 



" Supposing the outlet of the Bosphorus to be closed to 

 the height of two hundred and twenty feet above sea- 

 level, the superfluous waters of the Black Sea basin, 

 which now flow off to the Mediterranean, would rise in level 

 and encroach on the south Russian steppes and the lower 

 Danube plains, though the coasts of Asia Minor, which 

 form the southern boundary, would be but little changed 

 on account of their steepness. On attaining a height of 

 about twenty-three feet above sea-level ^ the waters would 

 escape by the line of the Manytsch into the basin of the 

 Caspian, and, after having filled it up also, would flood the 

 country intervening between it and Lake Aral. In their 

 ascent to this basin the waters would chiefly pass by the 

 Emba steppes from the north-east of the Caspian basin, 

 and from Balkhan Bay on the south-east, up the country 

 crossed by the Uzboy channel of the old Oxus ; for be- 

 tween the two seas lies the elevated plateau of Ust-Urt. 

 This high ground has several detached portions near the 

 Caspian shore, while the remainder of its surface is covered 

 with numerous bowl-shaped depressions. These would, 

 in all probability, have received the rising waters by 

 ravines which enter the body of Ust-Urt from the low 

 steppes upon its north and upon its south, and the aspect 

 of the plateau would thus have been changed into that of 

 the lake and marsh sprink'ed highland whose traces re- 

 main to-day. 



" In this imaginary reconstruction of the Asiatic Medi- 

 terranean, the moment the rising waters reached a point 

 at about two hundred and ten feet above the sea, and 

 which is situated at the head of the now dry gulf Abougir, 

 they would have entered into and filled up the basin of 

 Lake Aral." 



Many indications exist at the present day pointing to 

 the great probability of the existence, at some perhaps 

 not very remote period, of such an inland sea. The 



' This is the height of the surface of the lake, which exists in the bed of 

 the Western Manytsch, at its higher extremity, though tlie level of the 

 banks, at the bifurcation of the Eastern and Western Manytsch channels, 

 is more. M. Hommaire de Hell stated this height to be nearly ninety feet 

 above the sea, which is not very incorrect, though perhaps slightly in excess 

 of reality. 



fauna of the basins of the Black, the Caspian, and the 

 Aral Seas are nearly identical ; a glance at the fine map 

 which accompanies the volume shows that the region to 

 the north of the Aral is covered with lakelets, and evi- 

 dence exists that in historical times the Aral was joined 

 to the north part of the Caspian. The amount of evi- 

 dence, historical and physical, produced by Major Wood 

 in support of the ideas developed in his work, is very 

 great, and we think in the main convincing. 



The author devotes a number of chapters to the Amii- 

 darya, the lower course of which he has explored with the 

 greatest minuteness ; indeed he seems familiar with every 

 mile of it. He gives a clear and detailed account of the 

 lower arms of the Amu — which are not at all of the 

 nature of a delta — by which it discharges itself into Lake 

 Aral. No dependence can be placed on the permanence 

 of these outlets, nor indeed it would seem upon that of 

 any part of the Ami'i for the last 400 miles of its course. 

 It is known that at one time it flowed into the Caspian, 

 and Major Wood's work and map show how this could 

 easily have been, and could easily be again brought about 

 at the present day. From Tchardjui an old bed is seen 

 to strike westwards to the Balkhan Bay of the Caspian, 

 and from this branch again Major Wood adduces evidence 

 to prove that, periodically at least, another must have 

 struck south-westwards into the Attrek, which has been 

 so much in the front recently. The Amu, indeed, 

 throughout historical and no doubt prehistorical times, 

 has been an ever- changing river, in its lower course at 

 any rate ; its frequent and perplexing changes being 

 caused partly by the physical conditions which regulate its 

 flow, and partly by the interference of man ; for at the pre- 

 sent as in past times the river is tapped at several places 

 for the purpose of irrigating the desert regions which lie 

 to the west. The river divides at Khodjeili into three 

 main branches, which carry its water to Lake Aral ; but 

 these seem to be ever shifting, and the region embraced 

 between them, inhabited by the poor Karakalpaks, seems 

 to be mostly a swamp. 



Major Wood also devotes some space to an account o^ 

 the Syrdarya or Jaxartes, which at one time discharged 

 a considerable proportion of its waters by thejany Darya 

 into the Amu, and thus probably ulti.nialely into the Cas- 

 pian. Major Wood traversed the district between the 

 lower Amii and Fort Perofi'sky, the Kizzel Koom desert, 

 and came across distinct traces of a former channel. But 

 altogether the amount of evidence, historical and physical, 

 which he brings forward to show the changes which have 

 taken place in the region under consideration is almost be- 

 wildering. Greek, Arabic, Russian, and Chinese writers of all 

 ages arequoted; indeed MajorWoodseemstohave collected 

 every important scrap of writing that bears on the region 

 he is investigating. This historical evidence, combined 

 with the physical conditions of the region with which he 

 has made himself thoroughly familiar, enable him to make 

 out a strong case on behalf of all the points he desires to 

 establish. The work must always be regarded as a stan- 

 dard reference-book on the hydrography of the Aralo- 

 Caspian region. But it is something more ; notwith- 

 standing that it endeavours to solve some very hard 

 questions, it is never dry, never uninteresting. It con- 

 tains a record of a pleasant and profitable journey from 

 Samara on the Volga to the Russian ports on the Syr, a 



