this direction and causes it to turn suddenly nearly at a
right angle to the south-west. Entering a transverse valley, it finds a
way (which is still very imperfectly known) through the numerous ridges
of the Himalaya to the plain at its southern base, on which it debouches
about thirty miles above Attock. It is difficult to say at what exact
point it crossed the Persian frontier, but probably at least the first
700 miles of its course were through territory not Persian. From Attock
to the sea the Indus is a noble river. It runs for 900 miles in a
general direction of S.S.W. through the plain in one main stream (which
is several hundred yards in width), while on its way it throws off also
from time to time small side streamlets, which are either consumed in
irrigation or rejoin the main channel. A little below Tatta its Delta
begins--a Delta, however, much inferior in size to that of the Nile. The
distance from the apex to the sea is not more than sixty miles, and
the breadth of the tract embraced between the two arms does not exceed
seventy miles. The entire course of the Indus is reckoned at 1960 miles,
of which probably 1260 were through Persian territory. The volume of
the stream is always considerable, while in the rainy season it is very
great. The Indus is said then to discharge into the Indian ocean
446,000 cubic feet per second, or 4280 millions of cubic yards in the
twenty-four hours.

The Oxus rises from an Alpine lake, lying on the western side of the
Bolor chain in lat. 37 deg. 40', long. 73 deg. 50'. After a rapid descent from
the high elevation of the lake, during which it pursues a somewhat
serpentine course, it debouches from the hills upon the plain about
long. 69 deg. 20', after receiving the river of Fyzabad, and then proceeds,
first west and afterwards north-west, across the Great Kharesmian Desert
to the Sea of Aral. During the first 450 miles of its course, while it
runs among the hills, it receives from both sides numerous and important
tributaries; but from the meridian of Balkh those fail entirely, and
for above 800 miles the Oxus pursues its solitary way, unaugmented by a
single affluent, across the waste of Tartary, rolling through the desert
a wealth of waters, which must diminish, but which does not seem very
sensibly to diminish, by evaporation. At Kilef, sixty miles north-west
of Balkh, the width of the river is 350 yards; at Khodja Salih, thirty
miles lower down, it is 823 yards with a de