1 SEISTAN. 175
2 which we possess respecting the physical geography of this
3 country, gives the following description of the arrangement
4 of its surface :—‘t The southern limit of the lower ranges of
5 that portion of the great Caucasian chain of mountains, which
6 lies between the 62nd and 65th meridians of east longitude,
7 is well defined by the lower or Delaram road from Girishke to
8 Furrah. From this line a vast desolate tract extends, part of that
9 great desert named, rather loosely, by Malcolm the salt desert.
10 Sloping gradually to the south-west, it descends, like the plains
11 of Tartary, in steppes, till its progress is arrested, on the south,
12 by a high sandy desert, and on the west by a broad and lofty
13 chain of hills, which stretches, in a south-west direction, from
14 probably near Ghorian to the Surhud, and thus, perhaps, con-
15 nects the Parapomisan mountains (Huzarah mountains) with the
16 Southern Kohistan (highlands of Mekran). The south-west cor-
17 ner of this thus interrupted plain, the last and lowest steppes,*
18 are Seistan.” 4 It is, in fact, a basin or plain, having on every side ‘ Conolly, 710.
19 higher grounds, and receiving in its most depressed part the
20 Waters of a system of drainage extending over above a hundred
21 thousand square miles. From the east it receives the great river
22 Helmund, the Khash Rood, the Ibrahim Joi, and some others of
23 less note; from the north, the Furrah Rood, the Adruscund or
24 Tiver of Subzawur, and some smaller streams. The only one of
25 its streams which flows from the west is the Bundau river, thus
26 described by Conolly :5—** During the wet season, a mountain *7!¥-
27 torrent rather than a river flows south-east into the lake (Ha-
28 moon) from Bundau, by the name of which place it is known.
29 The Bundau has a course of fifty miles, and only deserves notice
30 as being, as far as our knowledge extends, the solitary stream
31 which enters Seistan on the west.” The salf and sultry desert of
32 the south of course supplies no streams. All the above, even the
33 Helmund, partake of the nature of mountain torrents—et one time
34 of the year rushing down with great rapidity and violence, and
35 With a large volume of muddy water; at other times a shallow
36 stream of clear water rolls along the bottom of their beds, which
37 in the smaller rivers are often dry, or become a succession of
38 pools. The Helmund, however, at all times retains a considerable
39 body of water. Christie found it, at the end of March, four
40 * Conolly here mistakes the German steppe, meaning ‘‘ heath,’’ for the
41 English “ step ’ of stairs, or similar ascent.