Each boat can accommodate 150 passengers, twenty mounted men, and stow twenty tons of cargo--an estimate which strains their capacity to its utmost limit. In design these craft, flat-bottomed, with a draught of 18 inches and 2½ feet of gunwale above the water, are constructed of square logs of willow or mulberry, 6 feet in length, peeled, clipped into shape and clamped together with iron pins. The craft trade principally on the lower reaches of the river although there is nothing to prevent them, save the difficulty of the task, from venturing further up-stream. In this respect a few of the better class do manage to reach Patta Hissar, whence large floats of timber are despatched to Charjui. The existence of this trade at Patta Hissar is characteristic of the middle reaches of the stream, where white poplar, willows and mulberry trees grow in profusion. The presence of the timber encourages native shipping to tie up to the trees, the several little colonies of vessels thus laid up imparting to the appearance of the river an amount of life and animation not always borne out by actual traffic. [Illustration: VILLAGE ON THE MIDDLE OXUS] The contrivances used by ferries on the Oxus are in a measure identical with those which may be noticed on the Murghab and along the Helmund. Neither rafts nor inflated skins are in any favour on the lower reaches, although skins are employed by natives in the region of the Upper Oxus, this method constituting the sole means by which a passage of the river is effected. On the middle and lower reaches there are rough boats, similar in design to the trading craft but somewhat smaller in dimension. Rafts are requisitioned only for the transportation of firewood. Above Charjui, as far as a little east of the mouth of the Kunduz river, a distance of nearly 300 miles, there are fifteen ferries, four of which have been abandoned. Below Charjui, from that point as far as Petro Alexandrovsk, there are nine. The following are the stations between Kunduz and Charjui: _Fords._ Sharwani Takhb-i-Kuva _Ferries._ Karawal Tepe Kakul Gusar Kanda Gusar Khisht Tepe Mouth of Surkhab river Mouth of Kafirnahan river Kara’_Kaldar Patta Hissar Chushka Gisar Kelif Khwaja Sala Karki Burdalik Narazim Charjui. Between Charjui and Petro Alexandrovsk they are: Charjui Ustik Ili-jik Kavakli Guzhari Tozakar Khandek-li Sumpana Bi Baba Kheradj Petro Alexandrovsk.