we had to dismount and walk. As luck would have it, after
going about half an hour we came to a nice spring of water, of which in
the stillness of the night we could plainly hear the gurgling. Guided by
it, and a few feet above it in a sheltered position, we struck the
post-house.

The post-house has, of course, been built here (one mile away from the
high track) because of this spring. There is a direct track to it which
branches off the main track, about 3 miles north, but we had missed this.

The night was a very cold one--we were at 3,380 feet above sea level--and
we lighted a big fire in the middle of the small mud room. As there was
no outlet for the smoke except the door, in a few minutes the place got
unbearably hot, and I had to clear out, but Sadek and my camel men, who
were regular salamanders, seemed to enjoy it and found it quite
comfortable.

There were two rooms, one occupied by the four postal _sawars_, the other
by five Persian Customs employees. The two camels and two horses for the
postal service were kept in the mud walled enclosure.

Hormak, when the sun rose, proved to be one of the most picturesquely
situated stations on the entire route between Sher-i-Nasrya and Nushki.
It stood on a hill of sand and gravel in the centre of a basin of high
reddish-brown mountains which screened it all round. There was an opening
to the east which gave a glimpse of the desert extending into
Afghanistan, this station being not far from the border.

Our track was to the south-west, and wound round between handsome
mountains. A strange high pyramid of rock stood on our way, and the sides
of the mountains, where cut by the water, showed the interesting process
of petrification in its various stages in the strata of the mountains. In
hills of conical formation the centre was the first to become solidified,
and where subsequent rain storms had washed away the coating around that
had not yet become petrified curious rocky pillars were left standing
bare on the landscape.

We altered our course to due south along a river bed, and had high sand
hills to our right. Now that we were approaching Beluchistan the track
was well defined, and about 16 feet broad, with sides marked by a row of
stones. To the west of the track were a series of high sand walls (facing
west) 300 feet high, and some most peculiar red, pointed, conical hills
rose above them on the east side of these walls. It was after reaching
these peculiarly