'The Middle Eastern question or some political problems of Indian defence' [‎96r] (196/616)

A GRACIOUS LANDSCAPE
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To those in whom some inherited instincts of nomadic
life still linger I would above all recommend a spring
or an autumn journey through the Bakhtiari mountains
from Isfahan to the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. . Geographically, and
within certain limitations politically, the country of
the Bakhtiaris belongs to Persia, but, though in Persia,
it is in most respects not of Persia—at least, not of
modern Persia. Sturdy oak trees cling to the flanks
of the rugged mountain gorges, through which the
Karun and its tributaries have carved a way for their
turquoise blue waters, unsullied as the snows that feed
them; oak and beech and plane tree cluster round
every mountain spring ; the spacious groves which
clothe the greater part of the undulating uplands lack
only a carpet of green grass to complete their re
semblance to an English park; after the first autumn
rains, yellow and mauve crocuses spread a network of
colour over the brown soil before the tribesman's primi
tive plough prepares it to receive the seed for the winter
harvest. Stern as the face of nature often is amidst
the towering crags and deep ravines of the Bakhtiari
mountains, it seldom wears that forbidding aspect of
utter desolation peculiar to the waterless, sun-scorched
regions between Teheran and Isfahan, and between
Isfahan and Shiraz, which, though not devoid of a
certain grim picturesqueness, is apt to grow depressing
in its weird monotony. It is an easy march of about
eighteen days from Isfahan to Ahwaz on the Karun,
whence a steamer runs down to Muhammerah in a
couple of days. The interest of the journey is perhaps
more diversified than that of any other expedition
which can be as easily compassed in Persia. For it
takes the traveller out of what may still be called the
heart of Persia proper, namely, the plain of Isfahan,