Murghab River

“ Fords on the Murghab are not so frequent as on the Oxus.
The Kushk Valley extends in Russian and Afghan territory some 14 miles. It possesses an average breadth of three-quarters of a mile. Its hills, low and rounded, are a conglomerate of clay and red sand, but bare of trees and with their faces dotted with mud-cabins. An extensive system of irrigation is fed by the river and there is much cultivation on the tops and sides of the hills. ”

“ On the left bank of the river the Afghans maintain a frontier post at the fort of Kala Bar Panja. A road will connect Charog with the Alichur Pamir, following the general course of the Ghund stream, a road which will form a valuable link in the chain of communications between Bokhara and Sarikol. Eighty-five miles north of Ishkashim, at Kala Wamar, the river which rises in the Little Pamir, and which is called Aksu, Murghab, or Bartang, joins the Oxus from the east. It is on this river that the Russian outpost, Murghabi (or Pamirski) , is situated, at an elevation of 12,150 ft. above the sea. ”

“ The altitude of the Upper Murghab branches is not more than 6000 to 7000 feet above sea-level, at which height the climate certainly admits of agriculture, but no place that has been visited, nor indeed any position in the valleys of the Upper Murghab affluents, corresponds in any way to what we are told of this capital. ”

“ They have occupied parts of the Murghab Valley near Pul-i-Khisti and Ak Tapa, where they have cleared out the old irrigation canals, set their ploughs and other implements at work, and seem to be forgetting altogether their former mode of life. They have settled into villages, but live in kibitkas in preference to houses of mud or other solid materials. ”

“ To the south-west of the fortress the valley becomes so narrow, that it merits rather the name of a defile. Through the midst the Murgab rolls foaming away with the noise of thunder,--it is not until it has passed Pendjdeh, where the river becomes deeper and more sedate, that the valley spreads itself out and acquires a breadth of one or two miles. ”

“ Sir Henry Rawlinson points out the strategic value of this point, as the Chaharshamba route leads nearly straight into the Oxus plains and to Balkh. At the point of the junction of the two rivers the valley of the Murghab hardly affords room enough for a town of such importance as we are led to believe Merv-el-Rud to have been, even after making all due allowance for Oriental exaggeration. It is only about Maruchak that the valley widens out sufficiently to admit of a large town. ”

“ The Murray is a noble stream; but, at the present day, not a particularly interesting, or, at any rate, a highly picturesque river. The banks throughout are pretty, sometimes even romantic, but from the sameness of the forest trees—consisting chiefly of gum tree glades—and the expanse of flooded surface through which, at this season, the vessel passed, the scenery cannot but be regarded as generally tame. ”

“ Periodically it, overflows, causing wide inundations. The principal tributaries of the Murray are those from New South Wales, including the Edward River, the united streams of the Murrumbidgee and Lachlan, and the Darling or Callewatta. In 1829 Captain Sturt traced the Murrumbidgee River till it debouched into the Murray, which he followed down to Lake Alexandrina, but he was compelled, after great hardships, to return without discovering its mouth. ”

“ The Murray, thus combining within its basin nearly the entire drainage of the province of Victoria, with a large portion of that of New South Wales, and much of the eastern part of South Australia, appears to have been unknown to British Colonists before 1830, when Captain Charles Sturt, of the 39th Regiment—one of the most ardent and intrepid explorers the world has ever seen—whilst tracing the source, or rather course, of the Murrumbidgee, by order of the Sydney Government, came upon this noble river ”

“ In the third century this region was said to contain a thousand cities, probably an exaggeration, but indicative of the dense population it sustained, and might still sustain. In many places the valleys of the Murghab and Heri-Rud are several miles in width and perfectly flat. There are ruined canals all over these wide places, showing that they were once cultivated; they might be cultivated again and rendered fertile as of old by the same system that was once in vogue. The country is a desert because it is not tilled, and it is not tilled because it has no inhabitants. ”

“ Such rivers are always oasis-makers, whether on their way to the sea they periodically cover a narrow flood-plain like that of the Nile, or one ninety miles wide, like that of the Niger's inland delta above Timbuctoo;647 or whether they emerge into a silent sea of sand, like the Murghab of Russian Turkestan, which spreads itself out to water the gardens of Merv. ”

“ Ferrier describes the valley of the Upper Murghab in terms of rapture which appear to be a trifle extravagant to those who know that country. No systematic survey of it, however, has ever been possible, and to this day the position of Dev Hissar is a matter of conjecture, and the charming manners of its inhabitants (so unlike the ordinary 485 rough hospitality of the men and the unobtrusive character of the women of the Firozkohi Aimak) are experiences such as our surveyors sighed for in vain! ”

“ The country, as we approach South Australia, is now improving in appearance, as the waters having receded, the forest appears more open, and even the “Mallee scrub” is less monotonous than before. We learn, however, that this subsidence has not taken place on the upper part of the river, the Murray having risen some feet at Maiden’s Punt, probably from the floods on the Campaspe and Goulburn, for as yet the Alpine snows have not contributed their quota to the stream. ”

“ One remarkable difference between this river and the Murrumbidgee was that, in the latter, even where reeds most prevailed, a certain space near the bank remained tolerably clear: whereas on this river the reeds grew most thickly and closely on its immediate banks, thus presenting a much less imposing appearance than the Murrumbidgee, with its firmer banks crowned with lofty forests of yarra. Each Australian river seems to have some peculiar character, sustained with remarkable uniformity throughout the whole course. ”

“ Two creeks lay in our way and, from the flood then in the Murray, it was likely that they might be full of water, and the savages prepared to take advantage of the difficulty we should then experience in crossing them. The first channel we arrived at, which was quite dry when we formerly crossed, was now brimful of the muddy water of the Murray and before we reached its banks we heard the voices of natives on our right. We forded it however without annoyance, the water reaching only to the axles of the carts, but the current was very strong and FROM the river, that is to say, upwards. ”

“ The Murrumbidgee is a river which runs westerly from the district called Yass Plains, situated very nearly at the south-western extremity of New South Wales. It was for the purpose of exploring the course of this fine stream, that Captain Sturt was sent out at the latter end of 1829, and he had reached by land-conveyance a swampy region exactly resembling those marshes in which the Lachlan and Macquarie rivers had been supposed by Mr. Oxley to lose themselves. ”

“ The Murhar river then joined the Son 4 miles to the west of Jahânâbâd. Both sand and boulder stones were found at Nima, on the present course of the Murhar, when digging for the foundations of a bridge between Bânkipur and Jahânâbâd. I made numerous diggings still further to the east, and at Pakaoli, Pathariya Jhil, and Kasba Patna, all to the south of the present city, I found coarse red sand and boulder stones. Similar sand is also said to be found at Chilbil, 4 miles to the south of Phulwâri, and near Maholi on the lower course of the Pûnpûn. ”

“ No point in the Murghab region is more important than the Pendjeh oasis as an agricultural colony. It is principally confined to the limits of a single valley, some 25 miles in length and 2 miles in breadth. Dotted about its spreading expanse there are a number of tiny settlements, containing in all some eight to nine thousand households. The areas under cultivation do not return sufficient grain to support so large a population ”

“ After advancing about ten miles in a south-east direction from Berberah, we entered rough and broken ground, and suddenly came upon a Fiumara about 250 yards broad. The banks were fringed with Brab and Tamarisk, the Daum palm and green rushes: a clear sparkling and shallow stream bisected the sandy bed, and smaller branches wandered over the surface. This river, the main drain of the Ghauts and Sub-Ghauts, derives its name from the increased volume of the waters during night: evaporation by day causes the absorption of about a hundred yards. ”

“ In the afternoon I went with Pierre about one mile North-East of camp to the summit of a rough range and watershed, which I believe is the easterly watershed of the Murchison River. All the creeks to the west of this range (which I named Kimberley Range, after the Right Honourable Lord Kimberley, the Secretary of State for the Colonies) trend towards the Murchison, and finally empty into the main river. From this range we could see a long way to the eastward. The country is very level, with low ranges, but no conspicuous hills. ”

“ The Murray, fed by the lofty mountains on the east, carries to the sea a body of fresh water sufficient to irrigate the whole country, which is in general so level even to a great distance from its banks that the abundant waters of the river might probably be turned into canals for the purpose either of supplying deficiencies of natural irrigation at particular places, or of affording the means of transport across the wide plains.
The high mountains in the east have not yet been explored but their very aspect is refreshing in a country where the summer heat is often very oppressive. ”

“ The country at and for several miles about this place, and between these two rivers, shows the unmistakeable traces of having once been the bed of a mighty river, much mightier than the Punpun; from here it flowed in the bed of the present Murhar river till it finally joined the Ganges at Fatuha.
In parts of the bed of the Murhar river, and on its banks for some distance inland, are found rounded pebbles, precisely similar to the well-known pebbles of the Son. So close is the resemblance, that it has struck every one who has given any thought to it. ”

“ The Murray, when flooded from the eastward, will doubtless carry a boat safely down its channel, but as a navigable river at all seasons, it is, like the Macquarie, and indeed every other western stream, useless to the colonists. ”

“ McCullum’s station (Wella) , where there are 13,000 sheep, pursued our onward course towards Swan Hill.
From the junction of the Murrumbidgee, or rather of the Logan or Wakool, [16] up which we steamed a short distance, the volume of the Murray diminishes, and its sinuosity increases; but the steamer made good progress on her way, anchoring about half-past twelve a.m., on Thursday morning, the 15th September, in mid-channel, with a strong tide running. ”

“ The second, the Lachlan, rising in the Blue Mountains, near Bathurst, trends to the north-west, but eventually unites with the main river, about 200 miles in a south-easterly direction from the junction of the Darling, and after having been previously swelled by the waters of the Murrumbidgee for a distance of 150 miles. ”

“ Water means to these primitive peoples life and existence; and, as cultivation is only rendered possible by most assiduous irrigation, the task of conserving the supply involves incessant labour. Although agricultural activity prevails principally in the Murghab and Kushk district there are a few cultivated places in the Kashan valley. It would be useless to make any comparison between the former valleys and the Kashan. The Kashan valley contains a small strip, level, well watered and about half a mile in width, through which percolates a narrow stream. ”

“ They hired Indians to row them across in canoes, and all except the doctor bundled in. Finding himself about to be left, he grabbed up his instruments and waded out into the stream to reach the canoe, which had no intention of leaving him. He got in, wet and very angry, nursing his wrath till shore was reached; then he treated his companions to some vigorous language. They responded in kind, and the altercation became so violent that the row gave the stream its name, Mad River.
They continued down the beach, camping when night overtook them. ”

“ No one watching the sullen flood pouring past Bala Murghab in the winter time and looking up to the dark doors of the mountains from whence it seems to emerge, could have any idea of the wealth and fertility and the spread of its usefulness which is to be found on the far side of those doors. ”

“ These are denominated the Edward, Logan, Wakool, and Neimur Rivers; which, having a more direct course than the Murray itself, would, but for their unfortunate termination, after some hundred miles in a shallow creek, at no very distant period, have proved themselves of inestimable value to the internal prosperity of the adjacent provinces. As it is, nothing but a superabundant population will probably succeed in turning these streams to a useful or, at least, a navigable end. ”