348 THE PULSE OF ASIA
[Urgenj or Khiva], enters a narrow rocky valley called by the Turks Kerlawa [the Kerlawn of Abdul-Ghazi]. This arm afterward forms a cataract, where it falls with a frightful noise. According to Hamdulla, this arm of the Oxus discharges into the Caspian. . . . Ebn-Haukal and Abulfeda [both about 1300 A. D.] say that the embouchure of the Jihun is in the lake of Aral, but we may believe that it is only the principal branch of the river of which those authors have meant to speak."
Kitab Chelebi speaks only as a commentator, and adds nothing to our knowledge of the relation of the Oxus to the Caspian, except in one respect. His mention of a cataract or rapids in the Uz-boi channel is in harmony with what has been recorded by modern geologists. Several observers, to quote Davis, " have noted that the gentle southwestward descent of the channel is broken by the sills of rapids at several points, from which it may be inferred that the stream by which the channel was eroded did not endure long." Moreover, the Uz-boi channel is " decidedly smaller than that of the Amu to-day," from which it may be further inferred that it never carried the whole stream of the Oxus, and far less the combined Oxus and Jaxartes.
After the time of Jenkinson, A. D. 1559, the level of the Caspian still remained high, although, as we have seen, there is no evidence that the sea was reinforced in any way by the Oxus. A sketch made in 1638 by Olearius shows that the sea stood then at the third tower of the wall at Derbent. Bruckner says that " according to Khanikof, there is even to-day a clearly visible horizontal line of disturbance like an old strand, the same on which the sea of the representation
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