TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION B. 441 



On the fifth day Mr. Blunt came to the camp situated on the bank of the Tibb, 

 a river about fifty yards wide, and at the ford from three to four feet deep. The 

 Tibb rises beyond the Hamrin hills, which it cuts through, and after flowing for 

 about fifty miles across the plain, joins the Tigris at Amara. They were now close 

 under these hills, and found the soil good and carrying a rich crop of grass. 



Here the servants and camel men refused to accompany the party further, 

 as they were afraid to venture across the frontier, which has a very bad reputation 

 as the haunt of robbers and outlaws. Only the cavass remained, and they were 

 forced to load and drive the camels themselves. 



About thirty miles from the Tibb, the party came to a very similar river, the 

 Dueri, which they had some difficulty in crossing. It was much swollen by the 

 melting snows, and the horses had to swim. It was not too deep, however, for the 

 camels, and like the Tibb had a good gravelly bottom. Another thirty miles 

 brought them to the Kerkha, a much more formidable river, having a great 

 volume of water three hundred yards across and running at the rate of about six 

 miles an hour. Here they found a Persian prince living in exile with a Kurdish 

 tribe, and put themselves under his protection. 



The country passed over between the Tibb and the Kerkha is a low roDing 

 down, the last ripple in fact of the Hamrin hills, bare of trees and bushes, 

 but covered for the most part with excellent sheep pasture. There is, however, an 

 interval of about ten miles immediately east of the Dueri, where desert gravel is 

 found with the usual desert vegetation. The river banks are thickly wooded with 

 tamarisk and arghal jungle, and are said to contain numerous lions of the Persian 

 breed (not the maneless lion of the Euphrates). The whole of this strip, sixty 

 miles across, is uninhabited, although the pasture is excellent and the country well 

 watered. 



They crossed the Kerkha on a raft, and found cultivation and soon after villages 

 on the opposite side. The Kerkha is indeed the boundary here of Persia. The 

 party passed within sight of the ruins of Susa, and the same evening arrived at 

 Dizful. 



Dizful is a large town, the capital of the province of Luristan. It contains 

 perhaps 20,000 inhabitants, and is the centre of a considerable trade. It is the 

 market of all the pastoral tribes of the Bactiari mountains, and stands in a really 

 rich agricultural district. Between it and Sinister they passed several villages and 

 a fair amount of cultivation. Sinister is a town of about the same size as Dizful, 

 and both stand upon large rivers resembling the Kerkha, and crossed by ancient 

 stone bridges of twenty and twenty-two arches. These three rivers, uniting lower 

 down, form the Karun, the third of the rivers of Eden. 



Once past Shuster the road became deserted. On the whole seventy miles 

 between it and Ramuz they found not a single village, and only three Bedouin 

 encampments. The nomads here again are Arabs, but so poor and so ruthlessly 

 oppressed by the Persian government, that their flocks are unable to pasture a 

 hundredth part of the good grass land, which is abundant and well watered. The 

 soil, a rich red earth, would produce excellent crops and at little cost in labour, 

 for the rainfall here at the edge of the hills may be depended on. The Persian 

 government, however, is systematically destroying agricultural wealth in Arabistan, 

 which, though belonging to Persia, is treated like an enemy's country and is rapidly 

 becoming depopulated. Beyond Ramuz, Mr. Blunt travelled through miles of 

 standing corn, self-sown now for several years, though the deserted villages seemed 

 hardly yet in decay. Gardens with vines and fruit trees still surrounded the 

 houses, but there was nobody to gather the fruit. 



Bebahan is a considerable place, equal perhaps to Shuster, and though a decay- 

 ing town, is still the centre of no little wealth. It stands in a fertile district, and 

 the inhabitants being Persians have been less ruthlessly treated. Bebahan lies, 

 however, out of the direct route to Bushire, a"nd is surrounded by an intricate line 

 of hills, so that a railway could not easily pass that way. It stands about a thou- 

 sand feet above the sea. The descent towards the coast is by a series of precipitous 

 clifls, and after passing two more rivers the level plain which skirts the coast is 

 reached. Mr. Blunt struck the Persian Gulf at the little town of Dilam. 



From the time Shuster was left, the party had run considerable risk from the 



