TABRIZ TO ARZ-ROUM. 
m 
of fruit, particularly almonds, and) skirting the town of Shebester; 
which, embosomed in trees of every hue, was situated on the declivity 
of the mountains on our right. 
Shebester is a large town, surrounded by several villages, and by more 
wood and cultivation, than any spot I had yet seen in Persia. Hitherto 
indeed the want of trees, either as a shade to the road, Or as a relief to 
the inequalities of the heights, had been constant and uniform. We 
admired therefore doubly the beauties of our present course. Streams 
of running water were meandering in every direction amid the numer¬ 
ous willows, poplars, almonds, and other trees, which bordered our 
road: and at intervals the artificial dikes were opened to admit water 
into the beds of rice. The greater part of the country was covered 
with verdure, for the new com was already well advanced both in ma¬ 
turity and plenty. Peasantry enlivened the fields by the labours of the 
spade or the plough. 
After quitting Shebester we came in full view of the delightful lake 
of Shahee. It derives its name from the surrounding Mahale, which 
may contain twenty villages. I was told that its waters are as salt 
as the sea, and that the sand over which they flow, produces the salt 
used at Tabriz . It extended itself N. W. and S. E. before us, and its 
Western extremities were terminated by a stupendous chain of moun¬ 
tains, whose snowy summits, softened by the haze, contrasted admirably 
with the light azure of the lake. As we proceeded, the long moun¬ 
tain (which I mentioned in the route of yesterday, extending itself and 
forming a peninsula in the lake) appeared to have no connection what¬ 
ever with the surrounding lands ; and, by a stranger to the real topo¬ 
graphy, would have been pronounced an island. Its termination (to 
the south as seen from our road) was in the form of a sugar-loaf. 
Near Shebester we passed the village of Misholeh , and, lower down 
in the plain, those of Arsaleh and llalee, on the left of the road. 
Others indeed are seen at every turn, situated at small intervals on 
either side alternately, all in the MahalS of GhunSh . Among them 
are Besh-kcfelout, on the left: Khomyeh, prettily surrounded with 
