462 
SHULGISTAN. 
Shulgistan by nine o’clock in the forenoon. Our quarters were 
in a caravansary of the same era with that of Yezdikhast, but in 
very inferior repair; and distant from the last-named place about 
five farsangs. Both village and caravansary are supplied with 
water by kanaughts; and the ground in their immediate vicinity 
has some show of verdure ; but beyond, all is dry and cheerless. 
Towards evening I met two or three flocks of sheep and goats, 
and a drove of cows, coming in to their nightly shelter. They 
were the whole stock of the villagers; and the first animals of 
the kind I had seen since we quitted Ispahan. Aware how 
much the labour of man gives him power to produce fruitful¬ 
ness on the most barren soils, when I reflected on the dismal 
depopulation of these tracts, I ceased to wonder at the change 
which had taken place since the time of Chardin ; who describes 
them, as abundant in people, pasture, herds, and flocks. 
June 8th. Left our menzil this morning at four o’clock ; 
continuing along the plain, south 4 5° east, arid as ever; but 
gradually narrowing to the dimensions of an ordinary valley, 
where not even the ruins of a village broke the desert surface 
of the ground. Thus we jogged onward, for three farsangs ; 
without any change of objects to quicken or retard our pace, till 
we arrived at the foot of several pointed rocky hills, which 
stretched across, towards the north-east, from the great range 
on our right. Here we started a prodigiously large fox, and 
ran him for two miles along the valley; but when he took to 
the hills we soon lost him. He was very little less than a jackall, 
and of a most beautiful silvery grey. 
On returning to our road, and having advanced beyond the 
valley into a plain, the whole scene changed. I beheld villages 
in every direction, surrounded by gardens and thickly shaded 
