WATERFALLS NEAR SERDASHT. 477 
and when I was to leave him next day, gave me a near kinsman 
of his own to be the leader of my new escort. 
December 16th. — This morning at nine o’clock, I bade fare¬ 
well to my young guide of the Daroo ; and with repeated as¬ 
surances of the only return he wished for his services, my lasting 
friendship for his brave father, we parted at the city gate. On 
repassing it, I found the body of the Bilbossi still swinging in 
the air, and with a horrible whirling motion, the wind blowing 
fiercely from the east. Our journey continued on the descent, 
the plain of Serdasht being only one of the many small level 
tracts which happily intersect these alpine fastnesses. We had 
entered it by an almost covert-way amongst the rocks, and we 
left it by a steep and jagged path ; which conducted us, at about 
half-way down the mountain, to the bottom of an immense 
yawning chasm. We crossed it, almost deafened by the noise of 
a prodigious torrent pouring through it in a succession of water¬ 
falls, and thence rolling on with the same roaring violence to 
the valley beneath. Our route did not follow its course, but 
rather began to ascend again, in a direction N. 60° E. On 
looking round, I observed the whole horizon, from north-east to 
south-west, bounded by vast ranges of mountains, over-topped 
by others totally shrouded in snow. The most elevated before 
us was the Kourtak. The chain to the south-east is called the 
Banna ; at the foot of which, and two long marches from where 
we were, stands a town of the same name. The city of Senna, 
the capital of Ardelan, lies yet farther in the same direction, 
five long marches distant. After attaining the highest point of 
the hill we were then mounting, and traversing its summit, an 
extensive and fertile vale presented itself from that opposite 
brow. A fine river called the Kaloo-Zug, meanders through 
