Note 151 — Chapter II

There seems reason to doubt whether the Oxus ever flowed into the Caspian Sea—it now flows into the Aral. (See Alex. Burnes’s “Journey to Bokhara,” ii. p. 188.) On the other hand, Conolly believed he crossed the bed of the river which did formerly flow by one branch into the Caspian. (“Travels,” i. p. 50.) Dr. Vincent goes so far as to express his belief that communication between the west and east, by one of the routes specified above, was even more ancient than that by the Red Sea. (“Commerce of the Euxine,” p. 113.)