'The Expedition for the survey of the rivers Euphrates and Tigris, carried on by order of the British government, in the years 1835, 1836, and 1837; preceded by geographical and historical notices of the regions situated between the rivers Nile and Indus. In four volumes. With fourteen maps and charts, and embellished with ninety-seven plates, besides numerous wood-cuts. Volume the first.' [‎78] (125/905)

78
NATURE OF THE SOIL.
[CHAP. IV.
General ground, accounts for this change in the appearance of tlie
stenhiy of coim try; about two-thirds of wliich are, from the absence of
water, reduced to a desert. The nature of the surface, how
ever, varies considerably, the soil being, in many places,
suited to the wants of a pastoral people ; whilst in others it
consists of a deep and moving sand, which seems doomed to
hopeless sterility, and such is the worst part of the Balu
chistan desert. In other places the ground consists of pebbles
and flints, with a dark burnt appearance, destitute of grass,
or only showing a few stunted tamarisks and other shrubs,
together with a sprinkling of leafless, purple-coloured lilies,
which have forced their way through what otherwise seems
to be an impenetrable crust.
Most generally, the country presents to the eye of the
traveller only a monotonous, dry, cracked soil, encrusted with
nitrous particles in the warm season; and covered with
brackish marshes, in the low parts, during the winter. This,
though unfit for the permanent abode of man, is not alto
gether destitute of vegetation, but bears the soap-plant, camel-
thorn, tamarisk, bebul, and other stunted shrubs, of which
there are sufficient for the support of the camels.
In places where the desert assumes its least unpromising
aspect, it presents the appearance of a parched, cracked surface
its scanty at one period of the year, but at another it yields a scanty
supply of sheep grass; and, in consequence, it affords the
means of nourishing the horses and flocks of the Iliyats,
Kurds, and other tribes, when the severity of the weather
forces them to descend into the plains, and change their
locality as the pasture fails. Trees are very rarely seen, but
wild liquorice and rue, the spice-plant, gum ammoniac, the
tamarisk, bebul, and other shrubs, are scattered over the
surface, which, not unfrequently, is barren from neglect,
rather than from the want of capability in the soil itself.
An uninhabited tract, partaking in different places of each
of the above kinds of desert, intervenes between the cities of
Teheran and Ispahan. It is known as the salt desert, and
penetrates eastward into Khorasan, spreading southward
from thence to the borders of Fars. Another such waste