Page:England & Russia in Central Asia,Vol-I.djvu/108

88 ENGLAND AND EUSSIA IN CENTRAL ASIA. slower. A Eussian authority estimates it at three and a half miles an hour, and from the same source we are informed that the Cossack carriers, who have recently been travelling so frequently between D jam and Cabul, crossed the river in about thirty minutes. There is a ferry-boat at each of these places, which is generally a clumsy vessel pulled across by a couple of horses, the connecting ropes being attached to their manes. There is another ferry still higher up the river at Kilif ; but this has not yet been used by Eurx)peans. It is said to be eight hundred yards across, and is of great im- portance, as the one leading direct to Balkh; and should M. Maieff have reported favourably of the road leading to it from Karshi, it must become the main route for Eussia in the future. There are also numerous fords in the upper reaches of the Oxus, more especially, perhaps, that at Sharwan, which was frequently used by Mourad Beg, the Kundus chief, in his raids into Kulab and Hissar. It is asserted, on the authority of Captain John Wood, that he even took cannon across at this point. There are, therefore, several principal ferries across the Oxus which are in daily use, and also numerous fords and minor ferries in its upper course which present the means for crossing from one side of the Oxus to the other. The former are on the well known roads from Bokhara and Hissar to Merv, Maimen^, Balkh, and Khulm ; the latter on those less known routes which lead towards Faizabad, Kila Panja, and Baroghil. But it must not be supposed that the ap- pliances which a general would find ready to his hand