ROUTE. 22 1 
large measure, is due the success of our three months' journey in a couutr}- where 
travel is not only difficult, but sometimes dangerous. His presence was especially 
acceptable because of his unfailing good humor under trying circumstances and 
his kindness in conforming his plans to the whims of a geographer. Leaving 
Serakhs December 4, we crossed into Persia and spent the next month, till January- i, 
in tra\-eling as nearly as possible straight southward along the Afghan-Persian 
boundar\', past the playa of Khaf to the oasis and swamp of Sistan. At the latter 
place we remained till February 5, raitch of the time as the guests of Dr. .\. J. 
Miller, the Russian consul, to whom my heartiest thanks are due. Not onlj- did he 
entertain us most hospitabh-, but through his help it was possible to see in a short 
time the most important parts of the interesting region of Sistan. From the Russian 
consulate as a center, trips of from four to eleven days' length were made in all 
directions. During a part of our stay in Sistan I was the guest of the British 
officers connected with the Sistan Arbitration Commission, and the time so spent 
was as valuable scientifically as it was pleasant socially. In spite of his pressing 
political and military duties. Col. G. H. McMahon, the British commissioner who 
is settling the disputed boundan,- between Persia and Afghanistan, finds time for an 
enthusiastic study of the ph\siography of the new region to which his work brings 
him. To him and to his assistants, Mr. G. P. Tate, topographer, and Mr. T. R. J. 
Ward, irrigation officer, I am indebted for information and suggestions of the 
greatest value, to which I shall ha\e occasion to refer later. Our return journey 
from Sistan to Transcaspia lasted from Februar}^ 5 to March 13. It was made in 
a northwesterly direction, by way of Birjand, Tun, Turbat-i-Haideri, and Meshed, to 
Askhabad. Ever>-where we received the most hearty hospitality and read\- help 
from both Briti.sh and Russian consular officials, to all of whom thanks are due. 
LITERATURE. 
Few travelers have penetrated eastern Persia, partly because of its remoteness 
and parth- because it offers few attractions in the way of scenerj-, historic cities, 
game for the hunter, or people with picturesque dress and manners. Most of the 
foreigners who traverse the country- are bound on business, usually official, and 
follow the easiest and most frequented route through the mountains, where villages 
are numerous. This route, which leads from Meshed, by way of Birjand or Khaf, to 
Sistan, is, indeed, the only important road that leads far south in Eastern Persia. 
Other routes have been followed chiefly by British officers who were studving the 
country from a military- point of view either as surveyors or consuls, or as members 
of the various bonndan- commissions whose thankless task has been the demarca- 
tion of the boundaries of Persia, Afghanistan, and Baluchistan. These officers and 
a few \enturesome travelers have written almost the only accounts of Eastern Persia 
which we possess. The majorit\- of the accounts are geographic in the sense that 
they describe the country and people with great accuracy of detail, but all of them 
fall short of the modern geographic ideal in that they contiiin little save empirical 
accounts of isolated facts encountered along the line of the author's route without 
reference to any underlying scheme of geographic classification. The best of these 
