A RECENT PJDE TO HERAT. 123 



the valley is no longer the prevailing feature, and 

 that the fields of cultivation develop from isolated 

 patches into good wide stretches of land. The dasht 

 is never annihilated. It is a flattish-surfaced, gravelly 

 formation, produced by ages of detritus from the 

 hills, rising in many places above irrigation level. 

 Grass grows but very sparsely on. the dasht. It is 

 covered with wormwood scrub, which scents the air 

 as it is crushed beneath the horses' feet, and a mul- 

 titude of flowering plants, of the character of which 

 the botanist of the expedition will no doubt inform 

 the scientific world. A small yellow dwarf rose, with a 

 dark centre, was very conspicuous. It grows in great 

 profusion immediately round Herat. 



After four very pleasant days' marching, during 

 which nothing much was to be noted, except civility 

 on the part of the villagers, and an utter absence of 

 any attempt to interfere Avith our movements, we 

 reached, on the morning of the 7th May, the village 

 of Sakhsurmal. Sakhsurmal is a big village about 

 four or five miles north-west of the city, but hidden 

 from it by the rise of the intervening dasht. Only 

 the tops of the minarets of the Masalla are visible 

 from Sakhsurmal not a yard of the walls. Here, 

 then, was the critical point. We could go no further 

 without the permission of the " Xaib-ul-hukmat " or 

 Governor of Herat. Would he let us proceed or 

 not? The first sign was not promising. A solitary 

 horseman, who was recognised to be a servant of the 



