288 
LAKE OF SHAHEE. 
tain supplies of the rivers themselves, which depend almost wholly 
upon the mountain torrents. Persian rivers, in general, are on the one 
day overflowing their banks, and on the next, can scarcely be called rivu¬ 
lets, on which account, it would be impossible to form an estimate of 
the proportion of the supply to the evaporation. I should conceive, that 
the lake must have its largest quantity of water in spring, when the 
snows melt, and the torrents flow with the greatest violence, an opi¬ 
nion which derives confirmation from the nature of the small salt water 
lake, seen on the right of the road between Ojan and Tabriz, which 
in spring receives its water from the mountain, and in summer is com¬ 
pletely dry from evaporation alone. 
This lake resembles in many things, to what Sandys calls “ that cursed 
lake Asphaltides or the Dead Sea. Like it, its water seems dull 
and heavy, and the late Mr. Brown found that it contains more salt 
than that of the sea. We were informed, that as soon as the rivers 
disgorge any of their fish into it, they immediately die. We saw swans 
in the lake, near the coast contiguous to Shirameen. Like the Dead 
Sea, it also supplies the adjacent country with a salt of beautiful trans¬ 
parency, although the inhabitants generally prefer the rock salt, which 
is cut from quarries in the neighbourhood of the petrifactions. 
It contains four islands of different heights and sizes, exclusive 
of Shahee, which, though in fact a peninsula, is also called an island. 
They are small and barren, but are very conspicuous from their 
white cliffs, which, on a clear day, are visible from the top of the 
mountain above Tabriz. We were told, that not long ago a race of 
wild asses existed upon them, which had originally been turned loose 
there by the SeflEies, but which are now destroyed. At present they are 
tenanted by a family of venomous snakes and other reptiles, and are 
no otherwise useful than as affording a low brushwood and other mate¬ 
rials for fuel, to those who will give themselves the trouble to carry it 
away. Shahee, we hear, is inhabited, and contains twelve villages, the 
* Sandys’s Travels, 7th edit. p. 110. 
