ver-bed of well-rounded pebbles and sand. Our
course had gradually swerved to the south-east, then we left the river
bed once more and went due east, over confused masses of mud hillocks
from twenty to a hundred feet high. To the north we had a wall-like
mountain range formed of superposed triangles of semi-solidified rock,
the upper point of each triangle forming either an angle of 45 deg. or a
slightly acute angle; and to the south also another wall-like range,
quite low, but of a similar character to the northern ones. Beyond it, to
the south-west, twenty miles back (by the way followed) lay the Darband
Mountain, on the other side of which we had made our previous camp.

The camp at which we halted bore the name of Darband, and from this point
the desert again opened into a wide flat expanse. The mountains to the
north suddenly ended in a crowded succession of low mud-hills, descending
for about a mile into the flat. The desert in all its dignified grandeur,
spread before us almost uninterruptedly from due north to south-east, as
far as the eye could see. North, a long way off, one could perceive a low
range of hills extending in an easterly direction, and beyond at 30 deg.
bearings magnetic (about N.N.E.) rose a very high mountain and yet
another very far north-east, with some isolated conical hills of fair
height standing before it in the same direction; otherwise everything
else in front of us was as flat and as barren as could be.

At Darband halting place there is an interesting old circular tower, much
battered, as if it had seen some fighting. The attacks on it seem to have
taken place mostly from the south-westerly side, which aspect bears
evident marks of violent assaults. The tower is most cleverly loopholed,
so as to protect the inmates while firing on the enemy, and has a
look-out house on the top. For additional protection the entrance door is
about twenty feet above the ground and can only be reached by a ladder,
which was drawn up in cases of emergency.

A large dilapidated and filthy caravanserai--a regular fortress with a
watch tower of its own and loop-holes all round--is erected in the
vicinity in another commanding position. In the gully below there is a
small oasis of palm trees and a few square yards of vegetation alongside
a small spring of brackish water--the only water there is--with a
reservoir. Next to this, west of the caravanserai, are the remains of a
few mud huts in ruins.

We were h