'Travels in Assyria, Media, and Persia, including a journey from Bagdad by Mount Zagros, to Hamadan, the ancient Ecbatana, researches in Ispahan and the ruins of Persepolis, and journey from thence by Shiraz and Shapoor to the sea-shore. Description of Bussorah, Bushire, Bahrein, Ormuz, and Muscat, narrative of an expedition against the pirates of the Persian Gulf, with illustrations of the voyage of Nearchus, and passage by the Arabian Sea to Bombay.' [‎319] (350/582)

TO KAUZEROON. 3jg
our kind entertainers, and set out on our way. Our course across
the plain lay to the south-we^t; and in about two hours, having
gone through its diameter in that direction, we came to the foot of
an ascent, which appeared at first gentle, but afterwards proved
sufficiently difficult. This was wooded with larger trees than we
had yet seen, of an evergreen kind; and we enjoyed some charming
views of the country, in our way up it. Here too, as on all the
hills we had recently passed, were hundreds of the beautiful
mountain partridges, which abound in these parts ; and, from their
never being molested, they suffer passengers to approach them
closely, without evincing the least fear.
We were about two hours before we gained the summit of this
range, as our ascent was by stages divided by small portions of
level road; and when we came on the opposite brow of the moun
tain, we opened the view of a narrow valley covered with wood,
and having the dry bed of a stream winding through it from the
south-east. Immediately beneath us, and beyond the low ridge of
hills which formed its farther boundary, was the plain of Kauze-
roon, which was exceedingly deep, and at least four thousand feet
below our present level,—the view closing in that direction by a
steep and lofty bed of mountains, forming a barrier in the west.
We descended over the rugged brow of this mountain of Peera-
zunn, or the old woman, by a winding path, leading our horses,
and moving at every step with great caution. The fatigue was of
itself sufficiently painful to all; but, in addition to this, the rocky
masses in some places, and the pits in others, with sharp-edged
stones that slipped from our tread, so pained our feet, that we
halted several times, on our way down, to breathe and repose.
In about two hours we came to a caravansera, which forms
a station for the passengers on this road; and our fatigue would
have induced us to halt here, but that there was at present
neither water nor food for us or our horses, and it was therefore
necessary to proceed. This station is called simply Caravansera