LAKE OF OUROOMIA. 
605 
munities were copiously supplied with water from myriads of 
springs distilling from the rocks above. Indeed, they flowed so 
profusely in one I passed through, that its narrow street was 
quite flooded by the superflux from a tank, into which the in¬ 
habitants had directed the stream for agricultural purposes. 
During two hours’ ride, we went by Kizzilja, Topchi, and Chi- 
rawan, three very flourishing villages ; and soon after, came 
opposite the once populous town of Tasoutch, now reduced to a 
long dun line of ruins, and inhabited by a few wretches of such 
scanty numbers, as are hardly sufficient to make up the meanest 
village. Their characters are infamous, for dishonesty and con¬ 
tempt of authority; yet it forms one of the usual halting-places 
between Tabreez and Khoiy. We gladly left it four miles to 
the south-east. Not far from us, and on the same line we were 
marching, lies Kara Teppa, a respectable village. As we moved 
on, the lake gradually curved to the south, and continued within 
a mile of our course. In an hour and half, we passed through 
the village of Keil-Koutchick, and saw another, about a mile 
from us on our left, called Keil Bezoork. The chain of moun¬ 
tains nearest to us on the north-east, began to lose the extreme 
elevation of their appearance, melting by degrees, as we advanced 
into the valley of Tabreez. We had now come to a second 
Radhar Khanah. Passing it, we took a direction south-east, 
leaving the high road, and in our way skirted the villages of 
Heft Chesma, and Sheerif Khanah. The lake, in this part of 
our march, was about a mile and a half from us to the right; 
and the mountains on our left might be distant about four miles. 
In less than a quarter of an hour, we halted for the remainder 
of the day at a place called Alibegloo, said to be six farsangs 
from Almasary, our last menzil. 
