Page:England & Russia in Central Asia,Vol-I.djvu/79

THE AMOU DARYA. 59 under his successors by the reduction of the laarbour of Derbend. From 1715 to 1837 nothing was done in this matter, and after more than one hundred and twenty years' interval the nominally scientific expedition of Peroffsky succeeded the more grandiose affair of Bekovitch. This expedition was a signal failure, since it was com- pelled to retreat before it had proceeded far into the desert, and was glad to find safety in the har- bours on the shore of the Caspian, with the loss of nearly all its camels. Since Peroff sky's year the attempts have been more frequent, and the bed of the Oxus has been more or less explored by Ivanof, Lomakine, and others. Lines of wells have been dug across in several directions from the Caspian to Khiva, and in one respect these would appear to have supplemented the absence of a railway or a waterway. But as a matter of fact it is not so. Communication between Krasnovodsk and Khiva is still attended by considerable danger both from man and nature; and there is no great caravan route here such as the Russians should in their own interests create. Military operations are hampered to a still greater extent, and the military sub-district of Trans- Caspiania is actually separated from that of Amou Darya by a greater distance than the latter is from Orenburg. These explorations will not be crowned with success until the Oxus or a railway forms a con- necting link between the two seas of Caspian and Aral.