Journal of the Royal United
Service Institution
VOL. XIX. 1875. No. LXXX.
LECTURE.
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the night's camping ground,
Abbott tracked hence the Khushk rivulet until its
valley was lost in that of the Murghab. We have now come
upon one of the most important rivers of Central Asia
south of the Oxus; rising in the Hazara mountains, or
northern slopes of the Paropamisus, it flows in a
north-westerly and northerly direction past the town of Merv,
until it expends itself in a desert swamp.
How far Shakespeare and Abbott
followed the same road, or at what point the former fell
into the track of the latter it is hard to say; for
Shakespeare mentions few places, and these few do not
always agree with Abbott's. But it is tolerably certain
that they both reached the Murghab, by following the bed
generally of the Khushk. Shakespeare gives no account of
the junction of the two. Abbott is more precise, probably
from having been the only traveler to whom ocular
demonstration was allowed. When the two valleys became
one, or near the apex where the two streams flow
together, Abbott moved over from the right bank of the
Khushk to the " Khail," or camp of Panjdeh, on the left bank of the
Murghab, " passing the ruined vineyard and
deserted fields of a once populous and cultivated
district." Here he found 300 black tents of nomads,
in the form of two hollow squares. Proceeding along the left
bank of the Murghab until the valley had narrowed in
breadth from nine miles to three-quarters of a mile, he
crossed by a bridge the dry channel of the Khushk just at
the point of junction. Hence to Merv, the route of both
travelers must have been, more or less, along either bank
of the Murghab; in fact, practically, to all intents and
purposes, one and the same.
Shakespeare found the Murghab, on
first acquaintance, “a muddy" rapid stream, the
banks thickly fringed with tamarisk." During the
night he moved twenty-two miles along its narrow,
sand-hill enclosed valley, on a generally good road, with
some steep sandy ascents, and f abounding in wood and
grass. Cultivation, however, had not been kept up as in
the good old times, and as the fine soil would warrant.
His next march after sunrise, during which he passed a
place called “Sanduk Kuchan," I estimate at 24 miles,
taking the figures wanting to fill the one gap in the
whole recorded distance to Merv. The next night march was
of 22 miles, still along the Murghab, and amid very heavy
jungle, to near the "Band-i-Talatun," or "
bank which throws " the water of the Murghab into
the canal of Talatun ; " an arrangement which
had failed in that particular year, owing to a
destructive flood. This was followed by a short march at
sunrise, in oppressive heat, of 10 miles. The progress of
the next night and morning, reckoned in one combined
march of 27 miles, was to Yalatun, where was a Governor
and Kadhi. The same process repeated in the following
twenty-four (hours, for a total of 22 miles, brought the
party to the fort and town of Merv.
Abbott's description of the Murghab shows it to be
"a deep stream of very pure water, about 60 feet in
breadth, and flowing in” a channel, mined to the
depth of 30 feet in the clay soil of the " valley;
banks precipitous, and fringed with tamarisk and a few
“reeds." The valley, once well cultivated, he
found, from Panjdeh to Yalatun, utterly deserted, owing
to late distractions of the country.
JBOC Note: Panjdeh was
the site of the 1885 Russian invasion of
Afghanistan. It almost lead to war with England
but the Afghans were far less upset about it than
the British. The Russians kept that area
establishing the city of Kushka. This was
the closest they got to India until the Soviet
invasion of Afghanistan. In which the Russian
troops massed at Merv and entered Afghanistan
near Kushka.
The Murghab river is the river
running north from Afghanistan that
disappears in the desert past Merv. The
Jungle mentioned was home to the Central
Asian or Turanian Tiger well into the
19th century:
"The Central Asian tiger has a
shaggier coat than his Bengal relative,
and his disposition is less truculent. He
never molests human beings or shows fight
unless attacked. About a year ago one
strayed during the noonday heat into a
kibitka near the Sir Darya, pushed aside
the occupant, a woman who was spinning at
the door, and coiled himself up in a dark
comer for a nap. Alas for outraged
hospitality ! Information was given at
the nearest post, and a party of riflemen
soon arrived and did the poor beast to
death."
The Heart of Asia: A History of Russian
Turkestan and the Central Asian Khanates
from the Earliest Times
By Francis Henry Bennett Skrine, Francis
Henry Skrine, Edward Denison Ross
Published by Methuen & co., 1899 |
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