1 © Pott, 407.
2 176 : SEISTAN.
3 hundred yards wide, very deep, and with uncommonly fine water.
4 The contents of these streams stagnate in the more depressed
5 parts of the country, forming shallow lakes or morasses, the
6 number, extent, and shape of which occasionally change as their
7 basins are filled up with matter deposited by the currents, or an
8 unusual quantity of water lodges on any particular spot. Of
9 these swamps the principal are the Great Hamoon,* about
10 seventy miles long and fifteen or twenty wide; the Duk-i-Teer,
11 about a third of its size, and communicating with it on the
12 eastern side; the swamp of Aishkineik, and a few others.
13 The Hamoon of Zirreh, so denominated from a ruined town
14 ‘of that name on its border, at one time extended over a con-
15 siderable space south of the Great Hamoon, but is now nearly
16 dried up, in consequence of the Helmund, which formerly re-
17 plenished it, having some years since deserted that part of the
18 country. So variable are the limits of these Hamoons, or swamps,
19 that they have different shapes in every different month of the year.
20 The whole of Seistan is completely level, except one small hill, the
21 Kohizor, or Koh-i-Khwajah, rising over the Great Hamoon, near
22 its eastern border, and not a stone is to be found, except a few
23 rounded pebbles in the beds of the rivers. The soil is either a
24 light and friable earth, similar to that of the neighbouring desert,
25 or a rich alluvial loam; but, notwithstanding its fertility, forest
26 trees are unknown, though dense jungles of tamarisk in many
27 places overspread the surface.
28 The country on the banks of the Helmund, at the eastern
29 frontier, is described by Christie® in favourable terms :—‘' There
30 the banks of the river are well cultivated and fruitful, having a
31 fine rich soil, irrigated by the stream ; but the utmost breadth of
32 this fertile strip does not exceed two miles, whence the desert
33 rises in lofty cliffs, and extends over an uninterrupted tract with-
34 out water or vegetation to the great road from Herat to Kandahar
35 on the one side, and on the other down towards the route pursued
36 by Lieutenant Pottinger from Nooshky to Dizuk and Bunpoor.
37 The country, though now only inhabited by Afghans and Beloo-
38 chees in felt tents, still bears the marks of former civilization and
39 opulence, and there are ruins of villages, forts, and windmills
40 along the whole route from Rodbar to Dooshak.” The elevation
41 * See Hasoon in the alphabetical arrangement.