The New York herald., 1879-03-01
THE RIVER OXUS.
THE MOST IMPORTANT EVENT THAT HAS HAP
PENED IN CENTRAL. ASIA.
from tho Calcutta piOneer1
r HAS HAP

From the Calcutta Poneer.l
Various answers might be given to the question,
What is the most important political event that has
happened recently i'll Central Asa?" The occupation
of Jellaabad Candahar by British troops; the
cupation of Kashgar and Yarkund by the Chinese;
the occupation of Khokand by the Russians; all
these events might be named But the occupation of
its old bed by the Oxus may perhaps be more i'm
portant politically than any Of these 1t will mean
most likely that the frontiers of Russia and Asia
advanced and her communications improved more
in single year than they have been in
twenty The Russians themselves fully aware
Of the chance and taking precautions to make it
certainty. The Russkaya Iracada confirms that
statement "that the dam Of the Oxus at Bend had
been broken. and that consequently there was flow
OF water into the Usbo an old bed of the river"
From the earliest ages the people OF the Khorasman
plains have used the waters of the Oxus for rrigat
and the river has been wandering in its lower
from canal to another Between its original bed
in the Caspian to which Lake Aral once joined.
and some point on the northeast extremity OF the
Aral the river has always oscillated The velocity Of
the river, from one cause or another, decreases;
the clay. laden stream deposits more OF ito
burden in its bed the mouth, Is COM
PEELED to seek lower level outlet, aud that
outlet in course of time will some day be again
the Caspian The River Amou Darya. the Jehun OF
tradition. the Oxus of classical writer's. waters the
khanate of Khiva, which else would be desert.
Nearly all the irrigation canals lead of now from
the left bank At the end of the cultivatng season
dams built across the canal head and the whole
population sets to work to clear the canals of the
seasons deposits The clay soil OF Khiva produces
under irrigation cotton OF very high quality There
several deserted channels through which the
Oxus once flowed. One Of them. some little way
lower down than. Petro-Alexandrovsk. strikes out
from the present Amou in northwesterly direction.
and after passing Kunia Urgenge and avoiding the
Aral turns southwark and continues to Krasnovodsk
Bay. under the name Of the Usboi. The Usboi
Channel. says Major Herbert Wood. who is the
great English authority on the subject. and
from whose Shores of the Lake Aral" We
havebeen quotng-presents the appearance of great
ruined ravine its sides falling in ut intervals. and
along its course and in the neighborhood are found
various lakes and springs. Still lower down the
Oxus is Bend the place spoken OF in the Russian
journal quoted. From Bend starts the Loudan
Canal, across the head OF which dam has been
thrown and fort has been built ut Bend to protect
the DAM 1t is this dam at Bend which has now
been carried away and the flow of the Oxus in
southerly direction passing by the Loudan Canal at
last reaches the Usbo Channel. and fills 1t fur AZ
Lake Sary Kamsh. A Russian expedition has beeR
sent to explore the Usboi onward to the Caspian,
and when the SHOWS OF the Pamer melt and the Oxus
" swollen IN the spring the rush OF waters may be
carried on to the great inland sea-