148 
PERSEPOLIS TO ISPAHAN, 
aub, (Aga Khan, an Arab of an old and respected family, who had 
accompanied us to the bounds of his district to provide amply for our 
passage) shared his forebodings. He had himself often experienced 
the severities of this country, and he, better than any one, knew the 
distresses which the detention of two or three hundred men in a spot 
so destitute and insulated would occasion. He had provided susten¬ 
ance for ourselves and our cattle for one night only, and this he had 
transported with great trouble from Moorgh-aub and other villages. 
Indeed through the whole of our march great and early were the pre¬ 
parations made by the chiefs of the country for our reception. If 
these were the difficulties of our passage, the march of an army would 
not be easily conducted. The country in its present state could not 
complete magazines of provisions, even if it were required by its own 
government. It must however be always recollected, that this is the 
least fertile province of the kingdom. 
21st. The snow did not fall, and we proceeded; we travelled nearly 
north during the whole of this day, and at the termination of our 
march (a distance of fourteen miles) entered a pass, which is more 
particularly dreaded as a stoppage in snows. We rested for the night 
at Khona Khorreh , a poor caravanserai now, but once, by the appear¬ 
ance of its walls, a respectable building. We had here much cause to 
regret the pleasant and copious streams of Moorgh-aub ; for the water 
which supplied our camp was taken from a pond twenty feet in circum¬ 
ference, so impregnated by the ordure of camels that it appeared quite 
black. After sun-set, a fresh breeze sprung up from the S. W. It in¬ 
creased in the night; and at about two in the morning blew a furious 
gale. 
Sunday the 22d. The wind continued to rage during the whole of 
this day, and only fell at night. Heavy clouds from the S. W. over¬ 
topped the whole of the surrounding mountains and precipitated them¬ 
selves down their sides, in the manner of the clouds at the Table 
Mountain at the Cape, when it blows from the S. E. Many of our 
