'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.' [‎168] (223/905)

168
DRANGIANA AND ARACHOSIA.
[CHAP. VIII.
desert of Siwistan into a cultivated, flourishing, and produc
tive garden. The numerous ruins which this province con
tains 1 sufficiently testify, that the country of Rustam must
have been once fertile and full of cities, which equalled any in
Asia in extent and magnificence ; 2 but the want of irrigation
has entirely changed its face, and the inhabited parts are now
chiefly confined to the valleys of Kash-rud, Farr-ar-rud, and
the Helmand.
Lake of The two last terminate with the sea of Durra, or Zarrah,
a body of brackish water of about 160 miles in circumference. 3
The fort of Rustam (Copee Zur) is on a hill in the centre
of the lake, 4 the shores of which are overgrown to a consider
able distance with rushes and reeds, interspersed with pools
of standing water; and these marshes, or thickets, are occu
pied by herds of oxen belonging to a race of people different
from the other inhabitants of Seistan, being tall, stout, black
men, who live in reed hovels, tend their flocks, and fish or
fowl on rafts among the rushes of the lake. 5
The two portions of territory just sketched represent the
Drangiana and Arachosia of the ancients; one of them is of
limited extent, and is situated near the termination of the
Helmand, whilst the other constitutes a large tract spreading
from thence to the eastward.
Boundaries of The former, Drangiana, now Siwistan, stretches along the
Drangiana, southern borders of Aria Proper, and was at one time
considered as part of that province. On the east it has
Arachosia; to the north. Aria ; to the west, part of Parthia,
with a small portion of Carmania. 6 It is watered by the
Etymandrus, or Helmandrus, which disembogues itself in
the extensive salt lake called the Zarrah (Aria Palus), after
receiving several tributaries. Its capital was Prophthasia, 7
a place celebrated in history by the conspiracy of Dymnus
' Captain Christie's Travels, pp. 407 to 409.
2 Elphinstone's Kabul, p. 492. » Ibid., pp. 492, 493.
4 Ibid., p. 493. s Ibid.
6 It was a part of Ariana.—Pliny, lib. VI., c. xxiii. Strabo, XV.
1 Arrian, lib. III., c. xxv. Strabo, lib. XVI. Captain Christie passed
through a large city called Peshawuroon.—See Pottinger's Travels, p. 409.