Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 41, Number 51, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 March 1909 — THE SEA OF ARAL. [ARTICLE]

THE SEA OF ARAL.

In Turkestan, due east from the Caspian Sea, lies the Sea of Aral, by come geographers called a lake, although next to the Caspian it is the largest body of water in the steppes of of Asia. The history of this sea is very remarkable, and has been a constant source of perplexity to geographers. - ’ From the northeast the ancient Jax- , artes river pours a volume of water Into this sea, while the Oxus, also a broad and rapid stream, feeds it from the southeast. The sea, however, Is very shallow, so much so that navigation is very difficult. Yet the sea has no visible outlet and is supposed to lose its waters solely by evaporation. There can hardly be an underground outlet, or the water would be fresh. On the contrary, it is brackish, but not sufficiently so to make it undrinkable by flock's and herds. The most astonishing fact, however, in connection with this sea is that it has twice disappeared and reappeared within historical times. This was the case during the Greco-Roman period, and again during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, A. D. During these periods, while the site of the sea was dry, the Oxus and Jaxartes emptied their waters into the Caspian. These rivers, by the way, have been christened anew in modern times, and are now called the Amu river and Sir or Syr river. For many years previous to 1870 the maps showed a long, narrow gulf, called the Gulf of Aibur-Ghir extending far southwest as an arm of the sea. v ; ‘ When the Russians made their advance on Khiva, one column marched down the west coast of the Aral Sea, expecting they would have to provide transportation across the gulf before they reached the Oxus and the capital they meant to capture. Much to their surprise, they did not find the gulf or any evidence that a gulf had existed, except a depression in the sand. No one knew where or how it had disappeared. Now a new discovery has given rise to fresh speculation. * * t A little while ago the Russians, fn the course of explorations around the sea, discovered a new lake, the waters of which are sweet, though it has no outlet. It occupies a part of the depression which was found during the KMva campaign, and a uarrow isthmus separates it from the sea. The question Is now how It came there, and, moreover, why its waters are absolutely sweet. In answer to the first question, the most reasonable conjecture seems to be that in recent years, during some great flood, such as the enormous freshet of 1878, when a great mass of.water from the Oxus was diverted far toward the Caspian Sea, a considerable portion of this flood Bwept northwest into the depression of Aibu-Ghir, excavating a channel and throwing up a bar before it, which still separates It from the Aral Sea. As to the sweetness of these waters, the very curious hypothesis by which the slight saiine condition of the Caspian and Aral Seas is explained is also supposed to account for the sweet waters of the new lake. The Caspian and Aral Seas are merely brackTsh. Around their shores are a number of large gulfs, almost land locked, and therefore nearly separated from the seas. The depCh of water in these gulfs is small, and the evaporation is enormous. Curents from the seas are constantly setting into these gulfs. The water never emerges from the sea again, but die pears through evaporation, leaving saline deposits. The Aral and Qaspian Seas, therefore, are constantly losing saline matter deposited in these great inlets, while they are receiving water wi.b very Uttle salinity, and it is supposed that the saline matter receive by the new fresh water lake Is eliminated in a similar manner.