National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books

Between the 15th and 17th of February, on our journey of some 50 miles west-
wards from Geh to Bint, we passed no inhabited place. Halts were made near
small streams at the two intermediate stages of Mulla-kalag and Chāh-i-'Alī.
There were also patches of scrub and tamarisk jungle to be found on the pene-
plains which descend from the Lāshār range in the north and across which the
tracks passed. Far off at the foot of the as yet unsurveyed Lāshār hills, rising
apparently to 6,000 feet and more, groves of date-palms could be sighted,
marking the presence of springs or small streams.

Bint, situated in a small fertile plain on the right bank of the river bearing its
name, is a large village and, like Geh, the meeting-point of several routes lead-
ing to the coast as well as to parts of the Bampūr basin. Down to recent times
its large fort was held by quasi-independent chiefs. But Bint had apparently
suffered much from the disturbed conditions preceding the re-establishment of
Persian authority, and the advent of our large escort had sufficed to cause the
bulk of its population to abscond. I could learn nothing about old remains in its
vicinity.

A march of 26 miles led northwards up the gradually narrowing valley to a
winding gorge in which the headwaters of the Bint river have cut their way
through the Lāshār range, and brought us on February 18th to Fanūch. The
few hamlets passed on the first quarter of the march were found deserted for the
same reason as at Bint. At Shātāp a side valley joins in from the north-east and
at its mouth affords space for some scrubby grazing. Beyond this the track
passes along the bottom of a narrow ravine flanked by steep faces of crumbling
rock, largely limestone. The path keeps crossing and recrossing the stream
until, at a point about 3 miles from Fanūch, both track and stream disappear
under a confused mass of huge limestone blocks, thrown down from the slopes
above as if by an earthquake. It took much trouble and time before all our
camels were safely brought across this great natural barricade, which a small
number of determined men might turn into an impassable darband. For another
mile the gorge continued very difficult, encumbered as it is with rocks that have
fallen from the towering Kōh-i-Fanūch (5,746 feet), until we emerged in view
of the date groves of the oasis.

The cluster of small villages constituting Fanūch, and counting altogether
probably less than 200 households, occupies the lower portion of a peneplain
extending along the left bank of the Aiminī (or Haiminī) stream to the point
where it is joined by the Rāmpk Kaur from the north-west. The soil of this
plateau, some 2 miles in length, is very fertile and easily irrigated from the
Aiminī stream by canals constructed mainly underground. That this favourably
situated ground was occupied from an early period became evident from the