dition stipulated for the sheep, but I promised them
that, and an additional present to take us on. T o this
they consented, but unwillingly, the distance by road
to the next station, they said, being 11 miles.
After leaving Ustik we noticed, at 11.45, on both
banks, rounded hills of sand and gravel, with the
peculiarity that they were flattened on the top, and all
at the same height, so that it was suggested whether
these flat hill-tops did not represent, in a former geological
epoch, the level of the country around, the
mounds having been washed to their present form.*
A s the day advanced the weather improved ; there
was less wind, and by 4.20 the thermometer had
risen to 64°. We now hugged the right bank, and
at half-past six came to Ildjik or Ilchik. The Toksaba
had preceded us, and was awaiting our arrival, bent, I
away Ezra and Nehemiah were re-enacted in my own case. “ In any
place where he sojoumeth, let the men of his place help him with
silver, and with gold, and with goods, and with beasts ” ; “ let the
expences be given out of the king’ s house ” (Ezra i. 4; vi. 4). (“ Now
the king had sent captains of the army and horsemen with me.” ) “ Moreover,
I said unto the king, If it please the king let letters be given me
to the governors beyond the river that they may carry me over”
(Neh. ii. 9, 7). For my part, I did not ask for “ a band of soldiers and
horsemen to help us,” though, when provided, I saw no occasion to
decline i t ; but let me not forget thankfully to acknowledge with Ezra,
that “ the hand of our God was upon us, and He delivered us from the
hand of the enemy, and of such as lay in wait by the way ” (Ezra viii.
22, 31).
* I suppose it is to these Dr. Gapus refers when he says that sometimes
one sees isolated hills of loess, and knows not how to account
for their presence. Perhaps it is hazardous, then, on my part to conjecture,
but they remind me of the cap-shaped hillocks of which M. N.
P. de Mamy speaks on the Lower Oxus. He combats the idea of their
origin being due to the action of the waves of an ocean, but says they
are due to atmospheric erosion. On the other hand, Major Herbert
Wood states that he found the surface of the hillocks near the Aral to
be composed of a thin layer of sandstone, showing very distinct ripple
marks, which he thinks is some firima facie evidence of the existence
of an Aralo-Caspian sea in tolerably recent times.
fancy, upon extorting money if he could. Perhaps he
had heard what I had promised the oarsmen. I had
been warned as far back as Samarkand to be very
careful, if I hired a barge, to make a bargain before
starting. The Toksaba now asked us about paying
for the boat. I simply replied that we were the
Emir’s guests, and were being provided with all things
necessary to take us to Petro-Alexandrovsk by his
Majesty’s commands. T o this charge he did not
return, though he afterwards endeavoured to have
money dealings with me to his advantage, and also tried
to deceive me respecting the number of men at his
disposal. They had erected no tent, and we had
again to eat our supper by moonlight surrounded by
Turkomans, whose swarthy faces beneath their sheepskin
hats looked grimly fierce in the glare.
Our next stretch of river was to Kabakli, or Karakli,
distant 47 miles.* We were promised overnight by the
Toksaba that a boat some miles off should be sent for,
but in the morning it had not come. We proceeded,
therefore, to breakfast leisurely in the open on cream,
tea, chicken, bread and butter, and then looked about
at some Turkoman boats and rough shelters they had
* Thus far from Charjui we had been running due east and west, but
now the rivpr turned, and resumed its normal' direction to the northwest,
not, however, in a straight line, but in three bends to Kabakli.
Opposite Ildjik the river contracted to a verst in width, 10 versts
further on. enlarged to 3 versts, with an island in the middle, and again
contracted 5 versts further on, where, on the right bank, was the
tomb of Ak-rabat, and on the left the town Moor, with 500 dwellings
(which Walker’s map, by-the-bye, places on the wrong side of the
river), and 2 versts beyond, on the left bank, the ruin of Kyzyl-Bash.
Another 8 versts brought us due north of the fortress of Ist-poos, on
the left bank, where are said to be half-a-dozen houses and a garrison.
About a verst further are ruins of a fort of the same name. For the
previous 10 miles there is vegetation on the left bank, but not on the
right, and both banks now become barren. For the next 30 versts the
stream continues contracted, for the most part to one verst in width,