e had descended to precisely the altitude of Muht, or 6,520 feet. From
this village the Sistan track descends for a few hundred yards and then
proceeds in a south by south-east direction over a flat stretch with some
hills. A very high mountain could be seen to the south by south-west and
another quite pointed to the south by south-east (at 170 deg. b.m.). To the
east-south-east some twenty miles from Muht, was another tiny hamlet
built against the foot of the mountain along which we had come. A large
plain opened before us to the south-west.

At Golandeh we were besieged by natives applying for medicine, as there
seemed to be hardly a soul in the place who was not affected by some
complaint or other. Affections of the eyes were most common. Those who
wanted no medicine begged for money or lumps of sugar,--which latter
there is apparently some difficulty in obtaining here and for which they
seemed to have a perfect craving. Men, women, and children implored to
be given some.

There were two towers at Golandeh, the lower one quadrangular in shape
and two-storied. The upper floor had recesses in all the rooms for
storing grain and provisions.

We left camp at 5.45 p.m. and all went well until about ten o'clock, when
Sadek took it into his head that we were travelling in the wrong
direction and proceeded to put us right, I being fast asleep on my camel.
The camel man, having never been on this route, did not know the way and
depended a great deal on the bearings I gave him daily by my compass.
When I awoke we had got sadly mixed up among big boulders and sharp
broken-up rocks, from which the camels had the greatest difficulty in
extricating themselves, and we wasted a good deal of time in helping the
animals to get on to better ground as they continually stumbled and fell
among the loose stones. The loads got undone several times and we were
all three so ill that we had not the strength to tie them up again
properly on the saddles.

In the course of time I put the party on the right track again, and for
more than one hour we went up and down steep but not high passes, through
defiles, and across a small stream. We were following the dry river-bed
among rocks in a gorge, and we arrived at a spot where there was a rock
barrier several feet high beneath us, which made it impossible for camels
to get down; so Abbas Ali was despatched to try and find an easier way
while Sadek and I were left to freeze in a cutting south-west