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Auckland Star, Volume I, Issue 78, 8 April 1870, Page 2

The Russian Government is making a very important experiment. The Oxus now flows into the Sea of Aral. It once flowed into the Caspian, its old bed being still visible enough to be a feature in the maps. If it could be brought back, the Russians would have an unbroken and impregnable water communication from the Baltic to the heart of Khiva, and with further improvements to Balkb, would, in fact, be able to ship stores at Cronstadt for Central Asia, and send them without land carriage. The addition to their power would be enormous; for instance, they could send 10,000 riflemen to Afghanistan by water, and without any sound audible to the West, —and their engineers think it can bo secured. An energetic officer, with 1,800 men, is already on the south bank of the Caspian; tho natives are reported " friendly," that is, wo suppose, quiet, and the Russian Grovornmont has tho means, through its penal regiments, of employing labor on a great scale. Wo shall hoar a great deal more of this engineering enterprise.