day reach the Oxus, the stream being consumed in the Balkh plain. The spectacle of ruined Balkh, which at one time extended in a circuit of 20 miles, must recall Old Merv. Formerly it was surrounded by walls, some 6½ miles in circumference. Nothing is left of these walls to-day but a mound of dried mud, worn by the weather into all manner of desolate and fantastic shapes. The whole of the northern half of the old city is one vast waste. Within the Akchah gate, three lofty arches mark the remains of the Jumma Masjid and at the cross-roads there are the foundations of the charsu. A little to the east of it there are two lofty gateways, the remains of the main city gates--the western portion of the city having been added subsequently. The southern and south-eastern portions stood upon a high mound which resembled the position of Herat; but all the remainder, with the exception of the old fort and citadel, was low and not more than 10 feet thick. The citadel, in its south-west corner, stood some 50 feet higher still. The whole was surrounded by a separate moat, rather narrow towards the city but with steeply-scarped sides.[29] This citadel must now be nothing but a mound, the weather having obliterated even the remnants found by Colonel C. E. Yate. To its north lay the fort, an empty, bare place, surrounded by high walls and ruined bastions, with no signs of habitation except the débris of a mass of low brick buildings at its southern end. It stood at a considerable height above the level of its surroundings. Between Khulm and Balkh, 9 miles east of Balkh and 26 miles from Khulm, is Mazar-i-Sharif, situated on a canal drawn from the Balkh-ab and containing rather more than 2000 households. It is held in the greatest veneration by Mahommedans in general and especially by Shiahs, on account of the firm conviction that Hazrat Ali was buried there. The tomb consists of two lofty cupolas which were built some 480 years ago. An annual fair is held, during which old and young, the blind, the infirm, the halt and the maimed of many a distant region crowd to Mazar-i-Sharif and, encamping round its shrine, plead day and night for the saint’s interposition on their behalf. Where cures are effected, they are the result more usually of a change of air and scene; but the greater portion of the faithful return as they came, bewailing their want of belief and their sins, yet never questioning the potency of the shrine.