Kuvan-Jarma, or Yangi-Su, the Ulkun-daria, and the
Kunia-daria, or Taldik.*
Prior to 1859, the waters of the Amu reached the
town of Kungrad, 66 miles from Nukus, so that
Captain Boutakoff took his two steamers, the P erofsk i
and Obrucheff, by the main channel to Kungrad, and
passed by the Taldyk and Ulkun-daria to the Aral.
In 1859, the Khivans built dams on the Taldyk and
Ulkun -daria. These have completely prevented the
entrance there of ships from the Aral. Along the banks
of the Taldyk are ruins of forts and traces of canals
and engulfed fields; this desolation dating from 1858,
during the war between the Ruler of Kungrad and the
Khan of Khiva. Thus the noble Oxus, on which I
had floated above Pitniak, where it has a volume of
126,000 cubic feet per second, enters the Aral b y three
ignoble streams, the river having been drained of half
its waters before reaching Nukus.
* The Kuvan-Jarma is now the most important of the branches of
the Amu. Eighty-seven miles from Nukus it enters lakes Kungrad
and Kara-Teren, emerges, after 17 miles, as the Yangi-Su, or New
River, and falls into the Aral 40 miles beyond. This branch of the
Oxus was navigated, in 1873, by some of the Aral flotilla, but with
difficulty. It appears that this waterway would be practicable for vessels
only in time of flood, since at other times of the year the depth of
Lake Kungrad does not exceed a foot. At the mouth of the Yangi-Su
shallows abound, and the passage through these, with their 5, 6, and
7 feet of water, is possible only in calm weather and by day. The Amu
at Nukus, having discharged about one-sixth or seventh of its water
into the Kuvan-Jarma, has still a considerable volume of water for 30
miles further, flowing north-west. Then there begin to diverge to the
right four branches, one after the other, and these completely drain the
principal stream dry. It is then called the Kunia-daria, or Old River
The bed, after being dry for 17 miles, collects from the backwater of
several channels, the largest of which is the Sar-Krauk, that enters the
Kunia-daria 33 miles above the Khivan town of Kungrad. From
Kungrad the Amu reaches the Aral by two channels, the one on the
left flowing due north, under the name Taldyk (or Tardyk), and the
principal stream to the north-east, called the “ Ulkun,” or Great-daria
There is one more subject connected with the Amu
that ought not to be omitted— I mean its fish, and especially
one species, called the Scaphyrhynchus. Whilst
floating down the river, the natives gave me the local
names of Amu fish as Sougan, Lakci, and Zaggara.
Yalbashi is their smallest, and Nahang their largest,
which last sometimes weighs up to 13 cwt. T hey
gave me the price o f fish at 6a per cwt. A t Petro-
Alexandrovsk they quoted the price o f sturgeon at 4d.
per lb., but from 4A to 6a for a whole fish of from 30 to
40 lbs. weight. They have no eels, they said, and do
not eat pike, nor the scaphyrhynchus, which last the
natives called Tash-bakrt, and the Russians Chaklik.
It is a kind of sturgeon, and, when discovered in the
Syr-daria by Fedchenko, it excited a good deal of
interest amongst naturalists by reason o f its resemblance
to one of the species of North American
sturgeons.* The Turkistan fish was at first supposed
to inhabit the Syr-daria exclusively, but some time
afterwards interest in the matter was heightened by
the discovery of another species of scaphyrhynchus, by
M. H. Bogdanoff, in the Amu-daria.
The fish belongs to the order Ganoidei, o f the
family Acipenseridae. One form was found for a
long time in the Mississippi only, till Fedchenko
unexpectedly brought to light his specimen taken
near Chinaz, which has been named after him Scaphyrhynchus
Fedchenkoi. This discovery suggested
that a similar form might perhaps be found in the
Amu, and so it proved. The new species was called
Scaphyrhynchus Kaufmanni, f and is especially in-
* The Syr-daria species was described by Kessler in the Annals
and Magazine o f Natural History for October, 1873,- and a note was
added by Dr. Albert Gunther.
t The Scaphyrhynchus Kaufmanni, according to Bogdanoff, is dis