712 Sketch of the Physical Geography of Seistan. [No. 103. 



The lake, which stretched in a direction parallel to the Bundau hills, was 



_,, TT 1 . about seventy miles long, and had an average breadth 

 The Helmund. . "^ , . . 



of eighteen miles. Its principal feeder, the Helmund, 



is not inaccurately laid down in our maps, with the exception, that the 

 Khash-rood is not one of its tributaries, and that the Arghandab enters it 

 just below, and not above, Killah Beest. This river, in the dry season, is 

 never without a plentiful supply of water ; during the swell, it comes 

 down with astonishing rapidity, equal in size to the Jumna. As soon as 

 it has left the hills, its bed is generally four or five miles in breadth, the 

 water more easily penetrating the readily yielding sides than the bottom, 

 converted into a sort of pavement by the stones rolled down from the 

 mountains. The stream has not however of late years occupied the 

 whole breadth, though in former times, before it had cut itself so deep a 

 bed, it would appear to have done so near Girishke ; for example, there are 

 ruins at opposite sides of the river of forts known to have been con- 

 temporaneous, and under which the water must have flowed (for they are 

 built in a semicircle, without a wall on the river face) though there is a 

 space of four miles between them. 



The stream now hugs its left bank, above which rises in vast mounds 

 the sandy desert. The ancient right bank is well marked by the high 

 cliffs of the plain before mentioned, which are every where hollowed and 

 indurated by the action of water. The rich space between this bank and 

 the modern channel, of which the average breadth is rather more than two 

 miles, is the country of Gurmsehl. 



The Helmund receives the waters of one or two small streams from the 

 desert on the west, which will be mentioned in the description of that 

 tract. 



The three rivers next to be described, have experienced little change since 

 1810. The first, the Furrah-rood, passes a little to the 

 north of the fort of Furrah, and runs close under Laush, 

 about twenty miles south of which it enters the Seistan lake. I am not 

 aware of this river receiving any tributaries in the lower part of its 

 course. (4) The Furrah-rood is nearly dry for the greater part of the year, 

 water is however confined in many places by bunds or natural hollows, 

 and is always to be found by digging a few feet into its bed, which is the 

 case with the Helmund, and most of the rivers of eastern Asia. (5) During 

 the spring it is a broad and rapid river, but not half the size of the 

 Helmund. 



4. The Gizea found in Arrowsmith's Map of Central Asia, 1834, must be either erroneously laid 

 down, or is soihe insignificant stream. 



5. Baber remarks this in his memoirs. 



