282 
DELUSIVE EFFECTS OF VAPOUR. 
it, added to the extreme saltness of its soil, would lead to the supposi¬ 
tion that the lake once extended itself over it, and washed the bases of 
the two above-described mountains : and^even now when its dimensions 
are fully ascertained, such are the delusive effects of the Seraub or 
mirage which constantly plays over the saline waste, that it is difficult 
to persuade the beholder that what he sees is vapour and not water. 
This is alluded to in the Koran, 24th chapter : “ But as to the unbe- 
“ lievers, their works are like a vapour in a plain, which the thirsty 
“ traveller thinketh to be water, until, when he cometh thereto, he 
“ findeth it to be nothing.”* Quintus Curtins, in describing Alexan¬ 
der’s march through the deserts of Sogdiana, has given so faithful an 
account of this illusion, and of the state of the atmosphere over a salt 
desert during the heats of summer, that either he must have witnessed 
such scenes himself, or must have acquired his information from au¬ 
thentic sources. He mentions a fact which must come home to the 
recollection of every traveller in the East; that as they entered the 
deserts, the despair of obtaining water kindled thirst before it was ex¬ 
cited by nature. He then compares the heat of the sun upon the 
sands, (where every thing is dried up,) to a kiln always burning; an 
image which becomes more striking from the very correct description 
which follows it. “ The steams which exhale from the fervid expanse, 
“ that appear like the surface of a sea, produce a cloudy vapour that 
“ darkens the sky.”f Such observations made in the country appear to 
be due to the character of an historian who lies under the imputation 
of indulging in extravagant description, and whose authority in con¬ 
sequence has been proportionably depreciated. 
Bishop Lowth has rendered what we read “parched ground” in our 
Bibles, into “ glowing sand,” (Isaiah, xxxv. 7.) which is highly expressive 
of the Seraub. J 
From Serd Rood, we travelled eleven miles to Khosrou Shah, 
one of the villages of the beautiful and productive valley of Uz-Eoh. 
* Koran, chap. 24. and Sale’s Note. f Quintus Curtins, lib. vii. chap. 5. 
J See Lowth’s Isaiah, ix. p. 88. 
