n the north
an intrusion of the Kara-kum sand desert. Land suitable for cultivation
is found only in oases, where it is watered by irrigation canals, but
these oases are very fertile. The middle portion of the state is
occupied by high plateaus, about 4000 ft. in altitude, sloping from the
Tian-shan, and intersected by numerous rivers, flowing towards the Oxus.
This region, very fertile in the valleys and enjoying a cooler and
damper climate than the lower plains, is densely populated, and
agriculture and cattle-breeding are carried on extensively. Here are the
towns of Karshi, Kitab, Shaar, Chirakchi and Guzar or Huzar. The Hissar
range, a westward continuation of the Alai Mountains, separates the
Zarafshan from the tributaries of the Oxus--the Surkhan, Kafirnihan and
Vakhsh. Its length is about 200 m., and its passes, 1000 to 3000 ft.
below the surrounding peaks, reach altitudes of 12,000 to 14,000 ft. and
are extremely difficult. Numbers of rivers pierce or flow in wild gorges
between its spurs. Its southern foot-hills, covered with loess, make the
fertile valleys of Hissar and the Vakhsh. The climate is so dry, and the
rains are so scarce, that an absence of forests and Alpine meadows is
characteristic of the ridge; but when heavy rain falls simultaneously
with the melting of the snows in the mountains, the watercourses become
filled with furious torrents, which create great havoc. The main
glaciers (12) are on the north slope, but none creeps below 10,000 to
12,000 ft. The Peter the Great range, or Periokh-tau, in Karateghin,
south of the valley of the Vakhsh, runs west-south-west to
east-north-east for about 130 m., and is higher than the Hissar range.
From the meridian of Garm or Harm it rises above the snowline, attaining
at least 18,000 ft. in the Sary-kaudal peak, and 20,000 ft. farther east
where it joins the snow-clad Darvaz range, and where the group Sandal,
adorned with several glaciers, rises to 24,000 or 25,000 ft. Only three
passes, very difficult, are known across it.

Darvaz, a small vassal state of Bokhara, is situated on the Panj, where
it makes its sharp bend westwards, and is emphatically a mountainous
region, agriculture being possible only in the lower parts of the
valleys. The population, about 35,000, consists chiefly of Moslem
Tajiks, and the closely-related Galchas, and its chief town is
Kala-i-khumb on the Panj, at an altitude of 4370 ft.

The chief river of Bokhara is the Oxus or Amu-dary