‘GAZETTEER OF PERSIA VOL. I Comprising the Provinces of ASTARÁBÁD, SHÁHRUD-BÚSTAN, KHÚRÁSÁN, AND SÍSTÁN’ [‎206v] (419/722)

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valleys, originating, one in the Sultan, ah plateau, and the other north
of and near Hamadan. Each of these is drained by a river named respect
ively the Si,drab and the Kara Su, which, with another considerable affluent
from Turshiz on the east, unite to form the great Kavir. It has only once
been seen by a European, Dr. Biihse, a Russian who crossed it about lat
een ,ein / I to Yazd. He describes it as about
Le'versts, or ‘abort six miles, wide. The patches of ordinary bavir seen
hv travel ers on the Mashhad road may possibly communicate with the great
kLi th ouch gaps in the intervening range ; hut C ark, who travelled iron,
TnrsMz to Samnan, does not mention any kavir, though he crossed the
Abrdsham river, which was supposed by travellers on the northern road to
fed in one of these smaller kavirs. This stream, therefore, at least would
anneal- to be a contributor to the great Kavir.
The altitude of the latter cannot be faxed with any certainty. It way
be below the level of the sea; and is certainly not far above it, as the
" ■ „ n the edo-e of the hills to the south, was determined by
. ’ f „ ,’eoo f eet The same traveller crossed a part of the Karman
d^rt’ nft more to BOO to 600 feet above the sea; and the lowest point
the northern waste is probably not much, if at all, in excess of this
” OtherTavfas, with constant mud and salt incrustations, are found in
the Sarian or Saidabad plain, west of Karman, and in the neighbouring
valley of Kutru. The ordinary kavirs, are innumeiahle. that south ot
ill If is one of the largest. Another receives the water of a small stream
flowing north-west from near Karmln The hanks of the >avkha„a
marsl]° formed by the Zaindarud, are also kavu ; and a kavir, peihaps
the same was crossed by Trezel, between Abadih and yazd. Abbott
records another in the valley between the Kuh-Banan and the ridges eas
0 £ Y a zd The best known is that north of Kum, which is aJia}, as it
were of the -reat Kavir ; but it is by no means formidable in the worst of
weathers, compared with the < kafehs’ of Karman.
The desert of Karman, called by Khamkoff the desert of Lut or Lot ,
that of Kharan, which bounds Persian territory on the south-east; and the
smaller waste of Bampdr, are drier, and therefore more sandy, than the
northern desert. Perhaps also the soil is less favourable to the formation
of kavirs The great depression of the Karman desert has been noticed.
It should be mentioned that though no kavir was crossed by Trmlhier
between Tabas and Yazd, and though there is an undoubted watei-paiting
between the Great Salt Desert and that of Lut, the wastes of shifting sand
passed by the traveller just mentioned may very possibly form a comma-
D1 A^lance at the outline of the dominions of the Shah, with the gulf in
either of the diagrams, will show the general line of frontier to be nearly
as like that of a footstool, as the coasts of Italy and Sicily are to the
proverbial boot. If Persia is famous for anything, it is for cats, so that
the fitness of the similitude is undeniable. _ _ . . ,
On the north-west, the frontier adjoining Prussian territory is hxe
bv treaty. The same may now be said of the Baluch irontier, from the
sJa to the Mashkid, and that in Sistan. Between the two, and further
north all is uncertain, save the names of the frontier towns. On the west
* T rannot help doubting this derivation, as I more than once heard the word ‘ lut ’ used m
v , • , - p n uivalent to £ waterless.’ A Bigi camel-driver at Jalk, describing the route across
Kharan desert, said, that seven marches to Kr-i-Kasr had water, but the remannng ree o
Helmand were ‘ lut.’