There is no
doubt that in all matters relating to the acquirement of
geographical knowledge, where it bears on possible military
operations, Russian perceptions are of the keenest. Her
surveying energies appear to be always concentrated on that
which yet lies beyond her reach, rather than in the completion
of good maps to aid in the right government of that which has
already been acquired.
With what lies north of the Oxus we can have very little to say
or to do; therefore it matters the less that in reality we know
very little about it. The Oxus is not a fordable river. At Khoja
Saleh, which is the furthest point supposed to have been reached
by the Aral flotilla, it is about half a mile wide, with a slow
current. At Charjui it is about the same width, only rapid and
deep. At Karki it is said to be one thousand yards wide, and at
Kilif perhaps a quarter of a mile. But at all these places there
are ferries, and there would be ample means of crossing an army
corps, if we take into account both the Aral flotilla and the
native material, in the shape of large flat-bottomed boats,
capable of containing one hundred men each, used for ferrying
purposes, of which there are said to be three hundred between
Kilif and Hazarasp.
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