1840.] Sketch of the Physical Geography of Seistan. 723 



also the dace, and in the Hamoon there is a small fish much esteemed, 

 called Aujuk ; it was not in season, and I did not see one. 



The more common wild animals are wolves (which will attack cows 

 and even men) jackaUs, hyaenas, foxes, porcupines, hedge-hogs, the kan- 

 garoo-rat, otters, &c. 



The skins of the last are exported to Bokhara, and sell even in Seistan 

 for three or four rupees. The leopard, or as a native described it to me, 

 "the tiger's younger brother," is found in the western hills, to which it 

 gives a name. 



Wild asses and deer abound in the desert which lies between the Hel- 



mund and the Bundau hills. This tract differs much from the sandy desert 



south of the river. Little sand is found on it, except in strips of no great 



width. For the most part it consists of a hard, compact, light-coloured clay, 



over which a few shrubs, tamarisks, and grasses are thinly 

 Deer. 



scattered, but sometimes it is perfectly destitute of vegetation 



for miles. Large spaces are found covered over with rolled stones, nor 



could we in every case assign a plausible explanation of their presence. 



The few isolated hills are marked on the map. 



Water is procured by digging wells in the beds of one or two small 



rivulets, such as the Murja and Tagrish, which are dry except after a fall 



of rain, and a tract runs through the desert, called Shund, where water can 



always be found within a few feet of the surface. Formerly brick wells were 



to be met with at every 10 or 12 miles on the caravan routes, but they 



are now almost all of them purposely destroyed by the Afghans, that 



the plundering Belooches may be prevented by want of halting places 



from invading them. From the scarcity of water in the interior, it is 



almost destitute of animal life ; the deer are found near the rivers, but 



chiefly, and in immense herds, at a distance of generally 7 or 8 miles from 



the Helmund, where they are almost intermixed with large flocks of 



sheep, which are sent there from the banks of the river to fatten on a grass 



called Muj. The mode of catching the deer is curious. The canals for 



irrigation are always cut as closely as possible to the cliffs of the desert, 



a narrow space only being left for a high road. The traveller in the 



Gurmsehl will remark the outer or desert edge of the canals lined for miles 



with a slight railing of threads raised on small pieces of stick ; at every 



one or two hundred yards a gap is left. Here in a pit dug for the purpose 



on the inner side of the canal, sits crouching the hunter, the muzzle' of 



his matchlock, which rests on the edge of the pit, being concealed by a 



parapet of small stones. 



In the twilight, either morning or evening, the deer steal from the dry 



desert to slake their thirst in the canal, sometimes singly, sometimes in 



