were about to be given up, a saiyid appeared, well acquainted with the nature of the ford. It was crossed at a very oblique angle, and by allowing the animals to be almost carried down-stream, whilst at the same time, each guided by two men, they were gradually steered across. I know of nothing more disagreeable than fording a rapid stream with a bouldery bed, as the current makes both man and horse giddy, and boulders give the worst of footing, The intrepid guide crossed and recrossed it five times, thawing his chilled limbs each time over a fire. We now ascended one thousand feet to the Mundagan plateau, and again ascending to an elevation of eight thousand four hundred feet, we descended steeply into the Kíná valley, a sudden drop of one thousand two hundred feet, and bivouacked under the wall of this small village for protection. The ladies of the place soon crowned its summit, snatching a short respite from their churning operations, which had already commenced, and which continued throughout the night.

We were up betimes on the morning of the 7th, and notwithstanding that we missed the track, and floundered for some time amidst irrigated frields, at 4 A. M. we | were already threading the Tang-i-Khafr, to pass over the spur of the Kuh-i-Díná, separating us from the Khafr village, picturesquely situated at the head of a deep valley under the Kúh-i-Díná, the passage over which we were now about to attempt. It would have been well had we halted here to gather strength for the undertaking. The village, which is surrounded by fruit-trees and cultivation, lies at an altitude of about seven thousand feet, and the pass about four thousand feet above it.

tween which the shales are held up at steep slopes.

A herb similar to that already met with at Khúgán, and resembling fennel in the form of its feathery stems, grows on the hillsides, and we met numerous fine oxen carrying huge loads of it to Khafr; grass being scarce at this season, just here, it is the chief fodder of the valley. The tents of the Iliyats occupied the pasture valleys and undulations, with the usual patches of wheat and barley near to them. Gaining a spur of the mountain, we ascended wearily enough, for the path was steep, the hillside stony, and we had frequently to cross long stretches of snow. It took us eight and a half hours from Khafr to climb to the Gardan-i-Bazurr, elevated about eleven thousand feet. After a journey of fifteen hours' duration, we reached Sisakht, a movable village of reeds, bushes, etc. (at seven thousand nine hundred feet), occupied by Kúhgehlú Lurs, and situated at the southern base of the Díná Mountain, where our wants were supplied by Ali Baksh, the chief of the district. So weary was I, that, after a drink of milk and a frugal repast, I tumbled into bed à la belle étoile, without undressing, for the night cold was sharp, and slept the sleep of the just, although I had promised my host to visit his tent after dinner.

The Kúhgehlú Lurs occupy the hills to the south of those of the Bakhtíárís, from the Kúh-i-Díná to Behbahán and the plain of Ram Hormuz. The various hilltribes, Bakhtíárí, Mamasani, Kashkai, etc., rarely now clash, and I received from the ilkháni of the Bakhtíárí letters to his kinsmen amongst them. Their language, customs, and religion do not differ in any material respect from those of the Bakhtíárís, with whom they intermarry. Their summer and winter quar

We were now in the hill country of the Kashkai, which stretches away to Shíráz, the mountains varying from eight thou-ters are little more than a transition from sand to nine thousand feet in height, and some of the highest peaks reaching to near thirteen thousand feet. These heights are, however, separated by fertile valleys, in which rice, wheat, barley, maize, vetches, cotton, etc., grow plentifully, whilst on the slopes of the hills are vineyards, together with many stunted oaktrees above, and mulberry, willow, and walnut trees beneath.

the valleys to the summits of the mountains above them, and in June I met with but few of their camps pitched in their winter grazing-grounds. The shatwt, or winter sowings of the tribes in these highland regions, include wheat, barley, beans, and opium poppy; whilst the saift, or summer sowings, consist of rice, beans, gram, cotton, and tobacco, The mountains here rise to a greater height than to From Khafr the track, gradually rising, the westward, and the valleys are less undulates under the slopes of the Kúh-i- rich in pasture than those within the Díná, here chiefly composed of deep blue Bakhtíárf hills. On the 8th, a journey of shales and clays, with outcropping hori- twenty-five miles brought us to the Kúhzontal layers of grey rock, of unequal gehlú encampment of Wálf Khán at thicknesses and at varied intervals, be- | Khurrá, where there is an Imámzádá.

use is mads of their skins, and the Lurs were surprised to hear that they were of any value. We here shot a few partridges on the stony hillsides.

My hosts were much astonished at a great nation like ourselves being governed by a queen. 'If, as you say," said they, "there are thousands in your country greater than yourself, how is it that such a nation of amfrs should be governed by a queen?" I had to explain that there were queens and queens, and that our queen was the mother and grandmother of not one but many emperors and kings, princes and princesses. Our deference and politeness to the gentler sex they cannot understand, and think us but poor creatures to be such slaves of the harem.

There were some fine colts in the camp, | alone make use of it. There is said to be and we spent some time prior to starting bear-shooting in the neighborhood, but no in fruitlessly endeavoring to exchange my Arab mare, which was suffering from work and a sore back, for one of them. The chavadar, too, was in a hurry to load up, and pleaded a stomach-ache, which he accounted for by the quantity of frozen snow that he had eaten the day before. He either suffered much pain or was a good feigner. Undulating under the Kúh-i-Díná, through well-wooded valleys, at ten miles the track gains the Derruhún stream, the right branch of the Khersún River (elevation five thousand nine hundred feet), which we forded at a point where its waters run in three channels, and then the Chowjehún, or left branch, above their junction. Both streams were swollen mountain torrents, rushing over boulders, rendering the crossing extremely hazardous. In the grassy valley From Khurrá (seven thousand four hunbeyond, and in several of the deep basins, dred feet) to Sad'át (seven thousand two oaks were plentiful, and in one place an hundred feet) was a difficult march of unsuccessful attempt appeared to have thirteen miles, several ridges with deep been made to start a nursery for young intervening valleys having to be crossed trees. Few could thrive here unpro- on the way. From the fertile Chenár tected, as the goats and sheep graze them valley we ascended the Tang-i-Bunderah down. The winter of 1883-84, as before and followed a winding, narrow, and steep remarked, had been an unusually severe path to the Gardan-i-Dast-i-Chalkellah one, and of long duration, consequently (nine thousand three hundred and sixty the melting of the snow occurred later feet) on the south side of which we this season than is generally the case. Ordinarily in June the streams would be more readily forded, and the passes less blocked with snow. The valley pastures had already assumed the brown and yellow tints of maturity, yet the Iliyats cut and stack no fodder, preferring to migrate to greener and more elevated pastures when those around them become dried up by the sun. A few years since this road was quite impassable to Europeans; but during the governorship of the Iltishámul-Daulat, 1878-80, robbery and crime were sternly repressed, with the best results. Layard mentions that the governor (Matamet) of Isfahan had, in 1840, revenged himself on the Mamasani for revolt, by building three hundred of them with mortar into a living tower; and I was told that the lex talionis was still rigidly enforced, and that if a highway murder took place a life was exacted of the tribe - whether of the offender or of an innocent man, no matter whom a method of proceeding likely to strike terror into every tent or household of the nomads.

The Kúhgehlú chiefs laughed at the idea of this road being supposed to be a caravan-route, and they assured me that no caravans ever took it; local traders

passed through the cultivated valley of Dast-i-Rukh, occupied by Kúhgehlú iliyats, and ascended its border hill to the south, to gain the rocky summit of the Gardan-i-Chashmah-Dúzún at nine thousand five hundred and seventy feet. A slippery descent, in places over frozen snow, led us from this neck down a stony ravine to the Imámzádá and village of Sad'át, a ruin surrounded by extensive vineyards, with fine walnut and mulberry

trees.

At Sad'át are some ruined one-storied buildings of cut stone, set in mortar, with low arched roofs, forming vaults which are typical of the Sassanian constructions as described by Sir Henry Rawlinson, and which evidently indicate the remains of a considerable town. We bivouacked here under a wide-spreading walnut-tree in close proximity to the conclave of the worthies of the village and encampment, presided over by its rishsafid, or "white-beard," and had evidence of the difficulty he experienced in raising the revenue demanded of him, for each man in turn pleaded poverty and lack of funds. In all cases, after many and loud altercations, a compromise appeared to have been arrived at, the kut-hhúdá being

aided by the opinions of the other mem- | two hundred and fifty feet wide, with prebers of the assembly, who each gave cipitous cliffs of unfossiliferous limestone judgment on his fellow as his case was rock, three hundred feet high, on either thus roughly adjudicated.

hundred and fifty feet, so that the temper- | my note-book that my artificial horizon ature in the shade, at 3 P. M., was 92°, (one of Captain George's construction) bewhen we took up our quarters in a ruined came too hot to be lifted after it had sarai, consisting of a series of apartments been for seven minutes exposed to the of antique construction, having pointed sun's rays at 3 P.M., and this notwithstandstone arches, and domed roofs built around ing that the thermometer only read 102° a quadrangular courtyard. The side walls in our bivouac amidst the tamarisk bushes were all recessed, each recess being cov- which here line the banks. I bathed here, ered with a pointed arch, with the vous as on every possible occasion, but I never soirs, springers, and abutments of stone saw a Persian follow my example; they do carved in Sassanian style, and with excel- not love cold water. After leaving Ardal, lent taste. The ruins around indicate the it was judged necessary by the guides, former existence of a town of some im- whom we changed about every other day, portance. As an example of the insuffi- to collect a guard of half a dozen Lurs to ciency of the available field labor in these watch our bivouac at night whenever it fertile plains, and of the improvident was possible to do so. They guarded us methods of agriculture practised by the in a fashion of their own, by sleeping at Iliyats, I may notice that the ears of the intervals along the tracks leading to the corn were in many cases about here bivouac. There was a quantity of hay on plucked and the tall stubble left standing; the hills bordering the river, otherwise yet chopped straw was much wanted and our animals would have fared badly, for in great demand in many parts of the we had consumed all our supplies; indeed, country I had just passed over. We were since passing Ardal, they had fed upon somewhat scared to-day, for several horse- grass or hay chiefly. Although not a soul men with spears bore down upon us at was to be seen, the clothing of one of our full gallop, pulling up their horses sharply mules, turned out loose on the hillside to on their haunches only when close at graze, was stolen. Anxious to reach hand. They then cantered madly to the Behbahán in good time, and being one front and rear, brandishing their spears, who believes that "delays have dangerous. and circled round about us for fully half ends," we started on the 13th of June at an hour, and until one thought that every 3.30 A.M., by moonlight. This was the one of their horses must have been badly second march that I had attempted in screwed. these hills before dawn, and in both cases with dire results. On the first occasion, we lost our way amidst irrigated fields; and on this, the second occasion, we nearly lost a mule, and one of my yek-dáns got smashed into match-boxes by a fall of the mule carrying it over the hillside. My only consolation was that my loss was the gain of the mule's life. Quitting our biv ouac, and descending the river valley, we entered the Tekáb Pass, here riding over a slippery stone revetment, but three feet wide, or an equally slippery, naked rock, most dangerous to both horses and mules. This Tang-i-Tekáb is two hundred feet wide, bordered by perpendicular cliffs four hundred feet high, in parts narrowing to fifty feet in width, whilst the unfordable river flows with a swift current down the pass, at a depth varying from fifty to one hundred feet below the narrow path. At the southern mouth of the gorge is a dripping fountain, with an inscription cut in Persian characters, relating the history of the construction of this most useful cause. way. Above, a path leads up the hillside to the village of Pushkár, which, perched upon an elevated ledge, amid a few palmtrees, looks down upon the difficult labyrinth of boulders in the ravine below.

We found we had not yet quite finished with difficulties from rocky paths, for on leaving Deh-Dasht, the sixteenth day after leaving Isfahan, we had two formidable descents to negotiate. From the village the path descends over treeless plains covered with standing hay, and growing thistles abundantly, to the Gatz-Darwáza; where the path led down a narrow ravine of granitic rock, and eventually became nothing better than a narrow, winding staircase of rock. Our lower elevation and increased temperature was evidenced by the luxuriant growth of lovely rose colored oleanders, now in full blossom. All mule-drivers hold this plant in holy horror, for it is poisonous, and if the mules eat it they rarely recover. Yet another tiresome, rocky, and steep ascent and descent-during which the rays of the June sun were, as early as 8 A.M., felt overpoweringly hot took us by a hazardous track, over slippery, naked rock, round the diz, or pulpit rock, which overlooks the Ab-i-Rumarúm, or Kurdistán River, here seventy yards broad, into the bed of that river elevated fourteen hundred feet; and some idea of the heat at this part of our journey may be formed from the record in

The delight of all of us at emerging | trough, the rivers flow again in their norfrom the hills was great. It was time too, mal course for a short distance, and again for our horses were thoroughly exhausted, cut the lower chains in succession in and not one of the four had a sound shoe; like manner, and so on until they reach indeed, all had been smashed to pieces the plains of the Persian Gulf. Many of since leaving Khurrá, and although we these tangs, says Loftus, expose a perpenhad taken the precaution to bring spare dicular section of one thousand feet and shoes with us, all had been used up. upwards, which were formed, not by the scooping process which attends river action, but by natural rents, produced by the tension of the crystalline mass at the period of its elevation. Of these fissures the rivers have taken advantage, and shortened their otherwise circuitous channels.