— 110 — 
Though the Amu Darya from Kelif to the Sea of Aral, 
a distance of about 1000 kilometres, has not a single affluent, 
it is in its lower course an imposing river. Where it is wide 
(3 kilometres or more) its brownish waters glide calmly along 
laying down banks, on which the boat is continually stranding, 
or removing them again. But where the river has forced its 
way through firmer rocks, for instance the limestones occur- 
ring in its lower course, there it becomes narrower, runs with 
greater speed and forms no strand. 
From the river one sees the desert on both sides. Though 
it extends down to the river in a few places only, yet the de- 
sert gives the character to the landscape. Beyond the green 
fringe along the banks lie brown drifts of sand, bare slopes 
of loess, limestone or sandstone, or low, dry, terraced moun- 
tains on whose flat tops old ruined castles are often visible. 
Where the river-bed is much wider than the river, one enjoys 
the characteristic sight of green oases on the background of 
the brown desert. Thus the oasis Eldjik appears like a green 
plot with verdant fields, light slender poplars and dark dome- 
like Ulmus campestris, surrounded by the naked sand. In other 
places thickets of shrubs, sometimes of considerable width, 
clothe the banks from the river to the desert; here one may 
see the cupola-shaped tents of the Kirghiz, and their cattle 
roaming about. In less fertile places one may scare the wild 
pheasants or see the ground torn up by the wild boar. The 
royal tiger is also said to visit these places occasionally. 
On the eastern side of the river the desert sand in some 
places extends right down to the water, and the bank is then 
a high glissade, the lee side of an advancing barchan. (Comp. 
above p.78). In such a case there is of course no vegetation 
on the bank. 
In other places, where the river has eaten into the margin 
and then retreated a little, a narrow green streak will be seen 
mainly formed by Tamarisks, Phragmites and perhaps Erian- 
thus Ravennae or Glycyrrhiza glabra. A firm moist soil will 
carry also Equisetum ramosissimum, Polygonum Bellardi, Mul- 
gedium tataricum, Plantago major, Aeluropus littoralis, Juncus 
compressus, Scirpus hamulosus — all small, herbaceous, meso- 
phytic or somewhat hydrophytic species. 
