The occupation of the Pendjeh valley by the Sariks took place about thirty years ago, when they were turned out of Merv by certain of the Tekke tribes. At first the Soktis were the sole possessors of the district; but, as other parties came in detachments from Merv, the different sections, increasing in numbers and in strength, were able to enforce upon the earlier arrivals a general division of the valley. Under existing arrangements the Pendjeh oasis has developed, the advent of the railway having attracted the attention of the Russians to its agricultural capacity. There must be now some 75,000 acres under cultivation, the entire area owing its fertility to the Murghab river, whose waters are confined by the Band-i-Nadir. The Yulatan oasis, which is inhabited by those Sarik Turcomans who moved from the Pendjeh valley, similarly possesses an unfailing supply of water from the huge dam, Band-i-Kazakli. This is drawn from the Murghab river by a canal and affords water to 125,000 acres, at a velocity of 1500 feet per second. The depth of the canal is sufficient to carry a camel off its legs. Near the site of the dam are the ruins of the Sultan-i-band, a work far vaster than any of the present day. It gave 28 feet head of water and made the fields and gardens of Old Merv the most fertile region upon the globe’s surface. The Sultan-i-band was destroyed in 1784 by the Amir Murad of Bokhara, an act which completely ruined the prosperity of Merv. Just a century later the Tsar, to whose private estates the site of Old Merv belongs, ordered the construction of an anicut 13 miles up stream. The work was carried out by Colonel Kashtalinski, superintendent of the State domains at Bairam Ali. It includes a dam which gives 14 feet head of water and it is connected with a series of storage basins, feeding a central canal 20 miles long. This in its turn supplies 35 miles of secondary canals and 105 miles of distributaries. The cost of these splendid operations was about £105,000; an expenditure which was declared by an eminent English authority on irrigation to be one-fifth of what a similar work would entail in India. It is in contemplation to restore the Sultan-i-band at an estimated cost of £210,000, by which a further measure of prosperity will be assured to the locality. The area thus irrigated amounts to 15,000 acres; 5000 of which are under cotton, while 3675 grow wheat and barley. The whole is let out to Turcomans and Bokharans. The mountains of cotton waiting for transport by rail in the season are a standing proof of the excellence of crops, which are said to return but little short of one hundredfold. The demand for farms within this fertile area is so great that the natives compete for the privilege of holding one at a rent in kind amounting to a quarter of the gross produce. In spite of prohibitions subletting is very rife and one plot frequently supports several families. CHAPTER VII