420 
BRIDGE OVER THE ZEINDEROOD. 
But my horse was now an experienced traveller, and, after the 
first stumble and recovery, we managed the remainder of the 
way very well. Notwithstanding this utter neglect of all the 
paths through this extensive domain, if an old tree chance to 
fall from age or accident, the governor instantly has its place 
filled up with a new plant; a precaution which must long main¬ 
tain the sylvan pre-eminence of Ispahan. 
Having passed through the Chahar Bagh, we reached one of 
the very fine bridges which cross the Zeinderood. They were 
all the work of Shah Abbas; built of brick, and on the same 
plan ; being perfectly level, presenting the appearance of Roman 
aqueducts. Each bridge is formed of a long succession of small 
arches, over which the causeway is laid ; and on that run two lines 
of arcades, on each side of the bridge; affording a comfortable 
shelter for foot-passengers, and leaving the open road between 
for horsemen and cattle. 
At this season, the river is very low; flowing through its 
wide, stoney bed, in two or three narrow channels; each not 
exceeding thirty or forty feet in width, and so shallow as to be 
fordable in a hundred places. The chief cause of so amazing a 
decrease in a body of waters which, formerly, poured in so full a 
stream under these numerous arches, is the great quantities 
which are drawn off for the daily use of the rice-fields lately 
planted all around Ispahan; and the cultivation of which seems 
likely to supersede entirely its once abundant nurseries for cot¬ 
ton and silk. 
We crossed the bridge, and entered Julpha. Nothing can be 
said more expressive of the condition of this formerly populous 
mart, than that its fate is an abstract of what I saw in Ispahan. 
Its ten thousand inhabitants have diminished to three hundred 
