JOUKNEY FROM HERAT TO ORENBURG. 235 



trouble in tracing it. After marching some hours 

 they begged me to halt until the morning, lest the 

 track should be lost. We slept two hours, and then 

 started again. By daylight even it was difficult to 

 trace the road, the soil being nothing but loose sand, 

 which drifts with every breeze. The only good 

 marks are the bones of dead camels and other ani- 

 mals, of which there are great quantities. Some 

 public -spirited people have been at the trouble of 

 occasionally putting the skeleton of a camel's head 

 on a bush near the road, and this is considered an 

 infallible sign. At one or two places branches of 

 trees are also heaped together as a mark, but these 

 are feAv and far between. This desert is very un- 

 even. I have seen one very like it in India, which 

 extends along the eastern bank of the Indus near 

 JBhawulpur. There are innumerable bushes of a 

 dwarf description, and in places the ground is almost 

 hard ; but some of the sandhills are of great height 

 and of the finest red sand. We came on twenty-seven 

 miles this morning ; the heat was dreadful, and the 

 loose sand and the fatigues of the previous night 

 added much to our thirst ; all the water we had in 

 the leather bottles with the riding -horses was con- 

 sumed, the camels were far in the rear, and there 

 was no appearance of a well. The Turkoman guide, 

 however, was positive as to the vicinity of a well, 

 and in reply to my question of " Whether my sword 

 was on his neck if he failed?" he laughingly said, 



