Note 15 — Chapter IX

Not Taldyk, as Admiral Butakoff called it in his treatise, read on the 11th of March, 1867, before the Geographical Society in London, nor can I agree with him about the two extreme arms of the Delta, of which he calls the eastern Yenghi, and the western Laudan. It is possible that it may have been so formerly, in consequence of the frequent changes of the water-course; but at present this is no longer the case I learned from the most authentic source, that the name of Laudan is given only to the dry bed of the Oxus, which, beginning at Kiptchak, runs in a westerly direction past Köhne Urgendj. Butakoff designates the middle branch by the name of Ulkun, and here I must remark, that this word meaning "great," is always added to the name of the chief stream. Ulkun, more correctly Ulken, is consequently identical with my Amu Derya.