6 Records of the Indian Museum. [ Mor. <VELT; 
without further knowledge and greater space than are at my 
disposal. It is necessary, however, if the peculiarities of the fauna 
are to be demonstrated that a somewhat fuller description should 
be given of the physical conditions in which it lives. I have 
referred to Seistan as a well-watered country. One might go 
further and describe it as almost a water-logged country ; and yet 
at first sight, at any rate in winter, it appears to be a desert of 
hard grey clay, only clothed with a sparse growth of camelthorn, 
only mitigated by the astounding play of the mirage. The appa- 
rent barrenness is because the soil is full of mineral salts dissolved 
in the water which permeates it a few feet below the surface. By 
capillary action the salts are drawn up towards the surface and 
assist in forming a hard, almost cement-like crust, which has to 
be removed before the operations of agriculture become pos- 
sible. If a field or a garden be neglected for a few yeats a new 
crust of the kind is formed, and so it is only those parts of the 
country actually under cultivation that have any appearance of 
fertility. 
The whole country is covered with a network of small water- 
channels ultimately connected with the branches or effluents of the 
Helmand. In these the flow of water is carefully regulated and 
for a great part of the year many of them are permanently or 
periodically dry. Even in their immediate vicinity the clay is 
almost lifeless. It is only in exceptional cases that the channels 
themselves support an aquatic vegetation, but in the one that sup- 
plies the Consulate garden at Nasratabad, there is a sparse vegeta- 
tion of Characeae and Potamogeton, while in brick-pits close at hand 
on the parade-ground Zannichellia palustris, 1,., grows with fair 
luxuriance. A green filamentous alga is more common and forms 
felt-like masses as it dries. These masses are often seen coating 
and sometimes completely burying the camelthorn in occasionally 
flooded country. 
We did not have time to visit the main channels of the 
Helmand, but at a place near Jellalabad about twelve miles ncrth- 
east of Nasratabad we examined the bed of one of the larger effluent 
streams. At the end of November, 1918 this stream-bed was 
almost dry, but shallow pools remained in which the water, though 
not very salt, was turbid and extremely foul owing to the presence 
of large flocks and herds which watered at the pool, and to the 
enormous number of small fish and mayfly larvae (Palingenia) that 
were dying in it. There was no vegetation in an active state in 
these pools, but peculiar roots with large globular swellings were 
still alive in the mud, and we found at some places the remains of 
reeds. Still nearer Nasratabad we examined a narrower but more 
active water-course, probably in part of artificial formation, which 
was connected with a small lake or large backwater. In this lake 
the only vegetation consisted of reeds in a withered condition, but 
L | have to thank my friend Dr. H. G. Carter for the name of this and other 
plants mentioned in this report. 
