us rejoining our men ? But it is no use grumbling. Now we enjoy a ride over solid ground, which will not be spoiled however hard it rains.
At one o'clock the temperature is 47.7°, there is a fresh breeze from the north-east, and the climate is colder and rawer on the northern than on the southern side of the Kevir. The steppe plants grow more luxuriantly, and only the light grey path is free from them. In some places flocks of sheep are grazing.
We pass on, the camels stretch out their legs, new views open before us, the projection towards which we have been marching is close at hand, and far in the east crops up Kuh-i-ahuan on the edge of the desert. Hauz-ihatam is a little cistern and Shur-cha, as its name implies, a well with briny water. Two miles off to the north, on a light-coloured mound, stands Imamsadeh-Nur-Ullah, also called Imamsadeh-pir-i-merdan, or the old man's holy tomb, whither the people of the country are wont to make pilgrimages.
After we have rounded the promontory, the higher mountains in the north appear more prominently, all southern ramifications or offshoots from Elburz. Beyond a small saddle the name Rudkhaneh-i-gez-i-nesfe or the " halfway tamarisk river " announces that we are halfway to Turut, reckoned from Peyestan. Tall tamarisks grow in this and the next erosion furrow, and not infrequently there is a thin layer of sand on the bottom of the beds. The ground is very uneven, but now we turn east-southeast, and the pace is rapid. We cross a succession of small saddles, all lying on spurs pointing towards the Kevir. One of them, which seems to be the highest, rises to 3753 feet. The rocks are partly a tuff-like product of weathering, partly basalt and porphyry. The view is somewhat obscured by the fine dry dust driven up by the rising northerly wind. The road is excellent, but the traffic insignificant ; all day long we meet only three small caravans of asses, and overtake a man carrying tamarisk to Turut on five camels. Hauz-i-Peyestan is the name of a reservoir with a domed roof at a distance of 5 farsakh from Peyestan. There is little more'than half a farsakh to
IIIFカラー高解像度
