Total as before . . . . 17

In the previous edition of this work I was inclined to identify Marco's
route _absolutely_ with this Itinerary. But a communication from Major St.
John, who surveyed the section from Kerman towards Deh Bakri in 1872,
shows that this first section does not answer well to the description. The
road is not all plain, for it crosses a mountain pass, though not a
formidable one. Neither is it through a thriving, populous tract, for,
with the exception of two large villages, Major St. John found the whole
road to Deh Bakri from Kerman as desert and dreary as any in Persia. On
the other hand, the more direct route to the south, which is that always
used except in seasons of extraordinary severity (such as that of Major
Smith's journey, when this route was impassable from snow), answers
better, as described to Major St. John by muleteers, to Polo's account.
The first _six days_ are occupied by a gentle ascent through the districts
of Bardesir and Kairat-ul-Arab, which are the best-watered and most
fertile uplands of Kerman. From the crest of the pass reached in those six
marches (which is probably more than 10,000 feet above the sea, for it was
closed by snow on 1st May, 1872), an easy descent of _two days_ leads to
the Garmsir. This is traversed in four days, and then a very difficult
pass is crossed to reach the plains bordering on the sea. The cold of this
route is much greater than that of the Deh Bakri route. Hence the
correspondence with Polo's description, as far as the descent to the
Garmsir, or Reobarles, seems decidedly better by this route. It is
admitted to be quite possible that on reaching this plain the two routes
coalesced. We shall assume this provisionally, till some traveller gives
us a detailed account of the Bardesir route. Meantime all the remaining
particulars answer well.

[General Houtum-Schindler (l.c. pp. 493-495), speaking of the Itinerary
from Kerman to Hormuz and back, says: "Only two of the many routes between
Kerman and Bender 'Abbas coincide more or less with Marco Polo's
description. These two routes are the one over the Deh Bekri Pass [see
above, Colonel Smith], and the one via Sardu. The latter is the one, I
think, taken by Marco Polo. The more direct roads to the west are for the
greater part through mountainous country, and have not twelve stages in
plains which we find enumerated in Marco Polo's Itinerary. The road via
Baft, Urzu, and the