92 Professor Fournet’s Researches on the 
hand, be added, that Toun, one of the towns of that region, 
is situated in a district rich in corn; and that, in the parts 
of Beloochistan where water is not awanting, the soil pro- 
duces fine forests, various grains, dates, almonds, sugar, 
cotton, and indigo, a variety of cultivation which necessarily 
infers falls of rain. We know, moreover, that rivers of the 
second order are lost in the sands, or are dried up during the 
summer, of which the heats are excessive at certain points ; 
so that we must necessarily admit the existence of hiemal 
rains. Regarding the north and the east of Beloochistan, 
more precise data establish the fact, that the seasons are 
regulated nearly as in Europe, with the exception of the 
summers being warmer and the winters less rigorous; al- 
though it must be remarked, that snow falls at Khelat, near 
Sarassan. The territory of Candahar is the most fertile 
possible. Lastly, on the maritime shore, the monsoons give 
rise to a rainy season, whose result is the termination of the 
heats which commence in March and last till October. There 
is, therefore, no surface of any extent in the whole region, 
which can be compared to the African Sahara. 
The chains of Salomon and of Brahu (Brahnick) separate 
Beloochistan and Affghanistan from the low country of the 
Indus, which flanks their eastern side. There Scinde is 
situated, the resemblance of which to Egypt has struck 
more than one traveller. Its*level plain, watered by a fine 
river which fertilizes its banks, is bounded to the right 
by a mass of steril mountains, which are rendered inhos- 
pitable by their soil and their climate; to the left, an im- 
mense desert of upwards of 600 miles in length, extends from 
Attock to the district of Cutch, situated on the gulf of the 
same name, and it sends off branches to the western regions. 
It is thus, that the opening which separates the mountains 
of Salomon and Brahu, Candahar and Scinde, is occupied by 
a naked plain, whose sterility is sufficiently indicated by its 
name of Detschi-bi-doulet or desert of poverty, plateau with- 
out prosperity. But although these countries are covered 
with hills of sand, although they recall all the horrors of the 
Arabian deserts, and although they even checked the auda- 
city of Alexander, it does not follow that they are absolutely 
