20 Address of Sir R. I. Murchison 
Aral Sea. For, although this great mass of salt water had 
been known to Arabian geographers during several centuries 
under the name of the Sea of Khwarezm, though its shores had 
- been visited by travellers, one of whom was the accomplished 
Russian geographer George von Meyendorf, who described the 
mouths of the Syr Daria or Jaxartes, at its northeastern ex- 
tremity, and another, General Berg,* who led a Russian expe- 
dition along its western banks in the winter of 1825-6, no 
ship had ever sailed upon this inland sea. The first vessel 
launched upon it was constructed at Orenburg in 1848, and 
transported in pieces across the desert, and in it Boutakoff, 
after two years of navigation, defined "the real shape of the 
coast, established the depths of the sea, and was the discoverer 
of the large island in it, the wild antelopes of which came to 
stare with astonishment, yet without fear, at their first invaders. 
ifteen years have elapsed since I communicated the first 
as ‘shall casi mye ignorant of the true geograp hy of 
* See the first published notice of the remarkable expedition of General Be 
woh Rae of set pao ae poor ” Resslaed the Ural Meutitaina” 
ip. 10. a de Berg, and the emperor's represen- 
fe sec 
ie 2 Se Le 
gE a : 
