1919. | Seistan and the Helmand. 7 
near it was a smaller pool in which were scattered plants, almost 
moribund, of a species of Potamogeton. 
By far the most peculiar and most interesting body of water 
in the country, however, is that which occupies the Hamun. To 
appreciate the structure of the Hamun it must be realized that the 
word means lake-basin rather than lake, and is sometimes applied 
to large hollows that are quite dry. Moreover, in Seistan at any 
rate, it is used in a collective sense to indicate a whole series of 
basins only joined together in high floods. In this sense the full 
name is the Hamun-i-Seistan or Hamun-i-Helmand, but it is com- 
mon to speak merely of the Hamun. On some maps of Persia and 
the adjacent countries the Helmand is shown as flowing into a com- 
pact body of water some eighty miles long and from ten to thirty 
broad. This state of affairs, however, only exists in exceptionally 
high floods and probably does not occur more than once in a 
decade. The Hamun is ordinarily divided into several distinct 
basins, of which two may be recognized as of most importance and 
most distinct. These may be conveniently referred to as the 
Hamun-i-Sabari and the Hamun-i-Koh-i-Khwaja. The Hamun-i- 
Sabari,' to use the name in the wider sense in which it is often 
used in Seistan, is the northern half of the Hamun-i-Seistan, and 
the only part of it that contains water not strongly saline at any 
season but flood-time. It rarely dries up completely. In normal 
winters it probably covers an area about ten to twenty miles 
long by six to twelve miles broad. The Rud-i-Pariun and other 
branches of the Helmand enters this basin on the eastern side. 
It is separated from the Hamun-i-Koh-i-Khwaja by a broad bar 
which is, except in flood-time, quite dry. Except at this season, 
the southern basin is dry or contains only pools of strongly saline 
water. It is only when the Hamun-i-Sabari overflows that it 
fills up, and when it itself overflows the-Shelagh becomes a real 
river. 
At the time of our visit the Hamun-i-Koh-i-Khwaja was said 
to be almost completely dry and we did not visit it. I shall 
confine my further remarks on the Hamun system, therefore, to 
the Hamun-i-Sabari. Of this lake we visited only the southern 
part, the northern extremity lying in Afghan territory. 
The shores of this part of the Hamun are for the most part 
low and shelving, composed of mud more or less firmly caked and 
with frequent beds of reeds. Along the western shore there are, 
however, cliffs in some places over 50 feet high. The water 
reaches the base of these cliffs only in very high floods and 
the beach below them is strewn with water-worn pebbles. They 
are themselves composed of hard greenish-white clay formed of 
! On most maps, including those issued recently by the Survey of India, this 
name is confined to the extreme northern part of the system, which is often 
isolated if not completely dry, the more important basin into which the waters of 
the Helmand actually flow being left nameless. At Lab-i-Baring, however, the 
whole lake is called Hamun-i-Sabari. 
