876 Lieut. Irwin's Memoir of Afghanistan. [Nov. 



or plain of Hirat is a sandy loam naturally fertile, and being well 

 watered bears good crops. The same species of soil extends to Murv, 

 and beyond it, although the intermediate space be little cultivated. 

 The soil of Murv is esteemed very good ; that of the Jumsheedee tribe, 

 whose territory forms the north-east corner of Khoorasan (see para. 

 19, 27,) is pejhaps equally good, and the Ymak vallies are in general 

 fertile. In the Jumsheedee country, and also in Jam and Toorbut, is 

 a great deal of broken ground. There is a less proportion of this in the 

 country of Ghaeen, and Birjund, and in Zumindawur, but still it is 

 considerable. Ekatool, belonging to the Ulukhoo-Zyes, a tribe of 

 Dooranees, is remarkable for the quantity of its ravines and broken 

 ground. Sungoo a city of Khaf has a hard clayey soil. The soil of 

 Mushhud is good and productive. To the north we soon reach the 

 desert of Margiana, which is generally a sandy plain, but contains 

 some low hills or hillocks. To the east it approaches near to Muno, 

 and north of that place joins the sands lying between Bactria and the 

 Oxus (see paragraph 104.) 



102. The great desert called Loot, lies south and west of Seestan, 

 and divides Seestan and Khoorasan from the Persian province of 

 Kirman. It undoubtedly communicates with deserts in the west of 

 Bulochishtan, or those deserts form a part of it. It is throughout a 

 sand, probably quite uncultivatable, and the edges only are visited by 

 the pasturing tribes. It is crossed by caravans, and sometimes by 

 small parties of marauding horse, but in these quarters those who go on 

 expeditions, generally mount themselves on camels, as being more pati- 

 ent of thirst. Like other deserts its outlines are not easily traced, as it 

 gradually melts into the inhabited country. In the road to Tubus 

 (the westermost of that name) in Khoorasan, the last inhabited place 

 in the province of Kirman is Durbund, which is forty fursukhs from 

 the city of Kirman — at Durbund are some brackish springs ; thence 

 are forty -five fursukhs of desert, to Chihlpaya, where are no inhabitants, 

 but a tank containing rain water, and a bowree dug by the order of 

 Nadir Shah. It is reckoned to be 300 feet deep, and the water is 

 brackish. There is here a hill which appears as if overturned by 

 some convulsion of nature ; it has not the least vegetation, and there is 

 little grass or even shrub in this dismal desert. After fifteen fursukhs 

 more, we reach Naeebund, where is some good water from springs in 

 hills, and a few resident inhabitants. The country is still sandy and 

 continues so far, several stages towards Tubus, and the population is 

 but small. There is a road east of this road from Nil (see para. 27) 

 to Khubees, where the chief inhabitants are Ghiljees, who settled 



