102 VREDENBURG : SKETCH OF BALtJCHISTAN DESERT. 



not that of a V, with the river channel in its lower part. Supposing 

 such had ever been its shape, the irregular showers of rain which break 

 at intervals making violent torrents of some of its tributaries, while 

 the rest remain perfectly dry, would soon have choked the deeper 

 part of the valley with the boulders rolled down from the secondary 

 ravines, but which the water once spread out in the broader main 

 valley with its more gentle gradient is unable to move further on. 

 Hence the steep and rugged mountain slopes end abruptly on either 

 side of a broad inclined plain, a stony "dasht" in fact, which has a 

 perceptible gradient, but whose section from side to side does not 

 deepen towards a central channel, but is quite horizontal or irregularly 

 notched. The section of the main valley instead of having the shape of 

 a shallow V, is more like a shallow trough with a flat bottom and steep 

 inclined sides. It is only quite at their source that the river-courses 

 resemble at all in their topography an ordinary alpine stream. In 

 many cases after not more than a hundred yards they broaden out 

 and assume the peculiar appearance above described. The cases 

 are very rare where, owing to a perennial flow of water, a valley 

 assumes a normal appearance as in the case of the Shekh Hosein 

 valley. With its clumps of date palms, its cool gushing springs, and 

 its fragrant oleanders, this valley seems so abnormal amidst its barren 

 surroundings that it has become a place of worship and a centre of 

 pilgrimage for the indigenous population whose nominal Mahome- 

 danism is strongly impregnated with fetichism and who have con- 

 nected many curious myths, probably of very ancient origin, with 

 every physical feature that presents an exceptional character. 



These broad winding stony plains, or rather inclined planes> con- 

 stitute the principal means of communication across the mountain 

 ranges, and account for the number of easy passes through which 

 one can travel from one desert into the next one. Except in the 

 most unusual event of a storm these plains are absolutely dry, and 

 even when such an occurrence does take place, the flood which 

 sweeps through it seldom lasts more than one hour when it does 

 last so long as that. At no time does a sheet of water extend right 

 ( 14 ) 



