74 OVERLAND TO INDIA CHAP.
have mistaken this ejaculation for the name of the place. But then " Unsurveyed " would hardly be placed just in this part of the Bahabad desert.
The information I obtained about the road from Tebbes to Bahabad was certainly very scanty, but also of great interest. Immediately beyond Kurit the road crosses a strip of the Kevir, 2 farsakh broad, and containing a river-bed which is said to be filled with water at the end of February. Sefid-ab is situated among hillocks and Burch in an upland district ; to the south of it follows kevir barely a farsakh broad, which may be avoided by a circuitous path. At God-i-shah-taghi, as the name implies, saxaul grows (Haloxylon Ammodendron). The last three halting-places before Bahabad all lie among small hills.
This desert route runs, then, through comparatively hilly country, crosses two small kevir depressions, or offshoots
of one and the same kevir, has pasturage at at least one t
place, and presents no difficulties of any account. The distance in a direct line is 113 miles, corresponding to 51 Persian farsakh—the farsakh in this district being only
about 2.2 miles long against 2.9 in the great Kevir. The i
caravans which go through the Bahabad desert usually make the journey in ten days, one at least of which is a rest day, so that they cover little more than 12 miles a day. If water more or less salt were not to be found at all the eight camping-grounds, the caravans would not be able to make such short marches. It is also quite possible that sweet water is to be found in one place ; where saxaul grows driftsand usually occurs, and wells digged in sand are usually sweet.
During my stay in Tebbes a caravan of about 300 camels, as I have mentioned before, arrived from Sebsevar. They were laden with naß (petroleum), and remained waiting till the first belt of Kevir was dried after the last rain. As soon as this happened the caravan would take the road described above to Bahabad, and thence to Yezd. And this caravan route, Sebsevar, Turshiz, Bajistan, Tun, Tebbes, Bahabad, and Yezd, is considered less risky than the somewhat shorter way through the great Kevir. I
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