28o 
THE BASIN OF EASTERN PERSIA AND SISTAN. 
break the unmitigated flatness except the dark tabular mass of the volcanic mesa of 
Kuh-i-Klioja, rising as a black island from among the brown reeds and gray water. 
The lake of Sistan has been a cause of wonder to most of the writers on the 
region because of the fluctuations of its level. Their wonder is perhaps natural, 
although the changes differ only in degree, not in kind, from those to which every 
inclosed lake is subject. A single example will illustrate the matter. Early in the 
year 1903, when the British Arbitration Commission arrived at Sistan, there was 
no lake at all, and the very lowest hollow in the northwest corner was dr}'. At the 
very time when the commission arrived, however, the spring floods from Hindu 
Kush were beginning to come down in great force. The lake was rapidly filled, 
and within a few weeks had assumed the extreme dimensions shown on the map. 
It was at this time larger than at any period for many years. Such sudden and 
Fig. 166. — An Arm of ihe Lake ot Sistan. In the (oreground are beds of reeds ; in the background, ihe 
lacustrine plain. 
widespread changes in the distribution of land and water have taken place again 
and again in the past. They are naturally impressive, even though the}- are nothing 
but the normal beha\ior of an inclosed desert lake fed by streams from lofty moun- 
tains. The hollow of Sistan has been so largel>- filled with silt that the bottom of 
the lake is exceedingly flat. Even at high water the Sayids pole their reed rafts 
almost everj'where. The people say that in the deepest places the water is " as 
deep as a man with upstretched arms." Where I examined the lake bottom it con- 
sisted of fine greenish or white clay which clung tenaciously to the poles of the 
raftsmen. Near the edges of the lake and on the plains round about, the material is 
the same clay mixed with more or less sand. At present fine sand seems to be 
the coarsest material brought down by the streams, and all of this is deposited 
immediately in the deltas. The main body of the lake is free from visible sediment 
and the water is clear and drinkable. 
