'A Journey from India to England, through Persia, Georgia, Russia, Poland, and Prussia, in the year 1817.' [‎148] (211/452)

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HOSE SOOLTAUN.
the dust and the intense glare of the sun, which scorches and
tans the skin very much.
The practice of building caravanseras on arches of brick, and
of roofing houses in the same way, has no doubt originated in
the scarcity of timber. Throughout the whole country, from
forty miles south of Shirauz to the northward of Tehraun, a space
extending nearly across the kingdom, scarcely a tree is to be seen,
except a few firs and cypresses, as already noticed in the gardens.
In this vicinity there was a kiln of burnt tiles, of an elliptic
form, designed as tubes for the kenauts, or water-channels.
There is not a village in sight of this place, nor was any to
be seen on the road, though the country on either hand is an
extensive plain. I observed on this route, that the lofty Demawund
had, in point of deep colour and defined outline, the same appear
ance which a mountain of one-third of the distance would exhibit
in India.
May 30th.—We proceeded in a north-east direction for the village
of Hose Sooltaun, distant twenty-one miles. The road for the first
five miles passed over heights and among hills, and at the end of
this distance we came to two small wells, or kenauts. Here
travellers coming from Koom often halt, in order that they may
be enabled to go on to Kenara Gherd in another march, by
which one march is saved. The spot has no attraction but the
wells, and a few weeds for asses, there being neither shelter nor fuel.
The road then leads over a saline plain, leaving here and there
hollows of considerable magnitude, white with salt. This desert
extends to the village of Zeraun, and to a range of hills in a
westerly direction, distant twenty miles; eastward it stretches as far
as the eye can see, and is said to reach to Mausila, distant forty
miles. Within rather more than a mile of the caravansera of Hose
we passed another range of stony heights, which were not saline.
The caravansera of Hose is not only small and confined, but
very filthy, and fafested with myriads of flies. Here is nothing
but water to be had, and even that is scarce at the end of the dry