what Burnes calls Meerabad (though I can find no
such place), where he was detained for some weeks,
and concerning which he makes the interesting remark
that Alexander, after a small detachment had been cut
up by Spitamenes, followed him to where the Poly-
timetus, or Zarafshan, loses itself in the sands of the
desert. He further quotes a passage from Curtius,
speaking of the extensive forests of Bazaria (supposed
to be the modern Bokhara), and the towers therein for
the reception of the hunters. How things are now
changed from a forest to a desert the reader will presently
see.
One of the most interesting geological features of
Central Asia is its moving sands, a veritable plague to
some parts o f Ferghana and Bokhara, advancing like
a flood, and swallowing up roads, houses, and farms.
Whole villages receive notice to quit, or be buried.
I have already described what is taking place in
Ferghana, and the same has happened also between
the Oxus and Kara-Kul, where the cutting down of the
saxaul, to say nothing of the forests spoken of by
ancient authors, has let loose the sand-dunes, which
the wind drives forward to the ruin of the fields.
The belt of sand-hills, on the east bank o f the
Oxus, from Kerki, or soon after the river leaves
Afghan territory all along to the Russian frontier on
the north, varies in width from 25 to 40 miles.
Burnes speaks of the width of the Sundukli sands,
between the Oxus and Bokhara, as varying from 12
to 15 miles, and the height o f the hills as 15 or 20
feet. Dr. Capus says 50 feet— a computation, I think,
nearer the mark. T hey gave us the distartce from
Daulet-bi to the Oxus as 16 miles, and a mile* from
the station the sand began in good earnest.
Sevier and I mounted our horses and preceded the
tarantass, the attendants asking us not to go too far
ahead, lest we should be lost. When once fairly on to
the desert we found ourselves amid surroundings the
like to which I had never seen before, and would not
willingly experience again. The only vegetation was
some dwarf bushes, a few inches high, under which ran
here and there, like squirrels, the long-tailed marmot,
and even these were soon left behind, and the bushes
gave place to sand-dunes not unlike those found on
parts of our own coasts. The shape of the hills was
uniform, each presenting the form of a horse-shoe, the
convex side being sloped towards the north, whilst the
concave side was precipitous. Sometimes we saw a bar-
khan had been formed by the increase of a house, with
the result that it had continued to grow till the building
was buried. Nothing appeared able to stay the advancing
scourge, and the desolation of the scene was,
in our case, heightened tenfold by a blustering wind,
that drove the sand in our faces. A s we looked ahead,
one bare hill rose above another like waves of the
ocean, whilst the tempest blew the sand from their
crests like spray, and all this on a scale that strikingly
brought to my mind the waves I had seen in crossing
the Northern Pacific.
For 7 miles we dragged on to the frontier of the
bekship, where we were met by 15 horsemen, come
to take our tarantass to the Oxus ; but imagine our
dismay when we discovered that they had brought
with them only one horse-collar ! They asked the
party from Kara-Kul to lend them theirs, but they
declined, took out their horses, and were making off.
The Amliakdar came to take his congé, and I gave
him a present, but it was not till his back was turned