SHIRAZ TO PERSEPOLIS. 
US 
part of Shiraz , the campagna and the mountains in the horizon. As 
our tents and baggage were still considerably behind us, we stopt and 
drank coffee at a hut, where is a reservoir of ice constructed by the 
Prince on a plan which to us seemed simple and good. A deep trench 
of about fifty paces in length, and fifteen in breadth, is cut into the 
ground; other dikes are cut transversely, which, as they fill with water, 
are emptied into the reservoir. When this first layer of water is con¬ 
gealed, another draught is made from the dikes, and thus the ice is ac¬ 
cumulated. A wall is built the whole length of the reservoir to screen 
the ice from the south wind which is here the hottest. We staid here 
about two hours, in which time Captain Sutherland ascended the 
highest point of the mountains to the west, and returned with the 
most brilliant account of the view: Shiraz and its plain were at his 
feet, the gardens and the whole delineation of the mountains and sur¬ 
rounding lands, laid out as if on a map. 
After we had quitted our late Mehmandars and their company, 
and had been joined by their successor Mahomed Khan, we begun 
to wind in the hills, and rode by the banks of the little stream of 
Rocknabad , until we came to a station of Rahdars , which is called 
Kalaat Poshoon, from its being the spot where the Prince puts on the 
kalaats , with which the King is frequently pleased to honour him. 
The country through which we passed, is hilly and open; scarcely a 
shrub enlivens the brown mountains, which here and there are varied 
by the capriciousness of their stratification into forms as extravagant as 
they are inhospitable. The source of the Rocknabad is about twelve 
miles from Shiraz , into which its waters find their way, after meander¬ 
ing in a variety of directions in their progress towards it. There was 
nothing particularly interesting in the march of the day. Large flocks 
of pigeons now and then flew over our heads, and the road here and 
there was occasionally strew’ed with ruined castles and caravanserais , 
which, though they bore a name, yet being uninhabited, are no longer 
worthy to be marked in the topographical history of Persia. After we 
had received the salute of a few miserable fusileers, had heard the reck 
