56 TRAVEL, ADVENTURE, AND SPORT. 



This smoothing of the roadway and repairs of the 

 parapet had been effected in 1847 by a merchant of 

 Shiraz. Before this, the Kotul-e-Doktur was con- 

 sidered one of the most dangerous passes in Persia. 

 At the base of the cliff, and looking up at the rugged 

 mountain -brow now capped with fleecy clouds of 

 morning mist, we had every reason to be thankful to 

 the good Shirazee, who had lavished his Avealth in 

 making the roadway such an easy one as AVC had 

 found it. -This was the one sole instance, during the 

 whole course of our travels in Persia, where it was 

 visible that the hand of man had been at work in 

 mending the road. Even close up to the gates of 

 their large cities, such a thing as road repair is never 

 dreamt of. 



The descent finished, we entered the riante valley 

 of Kauzeroon. The road passes under a cliff, a large 

 portion of which, we observed, had been scarped 

 away. On the smooth surface of rock a group of 

 figures, considerably larger than life, was represented 

 in a rude bas-relief. This, as we learned, was an 

 attempt on the part of our old friend Timoor Mirza 

 one of the Persian princes who were once well 

 known in England to hand his name down to pos- 

 terity. The whole sculpture, called by the people 

 Nuks-e-Timoor, was a rude imitation of the grand 

 bas-reliefs of the Nuks-i-Koostum, which we had 

 visited, at the same time as the tomb of Darius, 

 some weeks previous. In this the hero, supposed to 



