'GAZETTEER OF PERSIA. VOLUME II' [‎97v] (199/706)

182
GAY—GAV
Beyond the Gavkhaneh lies the salt lake. It is 75 miles in breadth
! from east to west, and stretches in a southerly direction out of sight when
viewed from the Slah Kuh.
Vaughan, who visited it in December 1890, thus described itI viewed
the lake from the Laghireh pass on the high road between Isfahan and
Nam, when its further southern shore was distinctly visible, appearing
as a high yellow bank, perhaps of sand. As, however, the road from Yazd
to Yarzaneh passes between the shore of the lake and a low red hill called
the Takht-i-Surkh, the position of which I fixed, it is improbable that the
lake can extend much further south than that hill.
At my camp at the foot of the Siah Kuh we were within 200 yards of the
margin of the lake, of which the waters were a brilliant green, except near
the shore, where they had a yellowish hue. Arriving Within 30 yards of
the water a long bank of fine grey gravel about 12 feet high and 20 yards
thick was reached. It had three successive watermarks on it—one at
8, another at 6, and the last at a foot. This latter, the most recent, con
sisted, like the other ones, of drift wood, but contained in addition feathers
and wings of sea birds, and myriads of the bleached bodies of locus ts
Beyond this beach lay a level expense of soft clay, into which one’s feet
sank deeply. Passing over about 30 yards of this mud the water’s edge
was reached but it was so shallow that, after going into it for 30 yards,
there was only a depth of 18 inches of water, the water being excessively
salt. A delightfully cool breeze was blowing across the lake, on the surface
of which flocks of white birds were resting.
The scenery, though wild, is picturesque ; and if fresh water were carried
by a channel, as it easily might be, from the Zindeh Bud to the foot of the
Siah Kuh, the place would form a charming bathing and boating resort
for the inhabitants of Isfahan.
It is said that towards the end of the summer the southern end of the
lake dries up, and exposes a vast sheet of solid rock salt similar to that
on the shores of the Daria-i-Namak, south-east of Tehran. Kav'ir is
witnessed here in the process of formation, it being in every stage bet
ween the smooth soft mud round the water’s edge and the dry plain of
a deep brown, pitted with large holes, and studded with dry excrescences.
The Gavkhaneh appeared, from this point, to stretch away for 7 or 8 miles
along the western shore of the lake, behind which was a high chain of
sandhills. The northern shore of the lake, as well as the eastern, is formed
by the smooth gentle slopes of the hills on those sides. The desert
between Abarkuh and Chah Beg drains northwards, and probably into
. the lake ; and the desert, of which this is the commencement, stretches
south for many miles past Abarkuh, Karat-i-Yazd, and Robat. The
Zindeh Rud river, which feeds the lake, pours down an immense volume
of muddy water for several months of the year and this in all probabi-
- lity is slowly silting it up. The river is far too rapid and tortuous to be
navigable even when in flood, while in summer it is said to dwindle away
to a shallow stream. Though fish are plentiful in the river, I saw neither
them nor shell fish in the lake.—Round the margin of the fen, cattle and
^ mules graze through the winter till the “Nauruz,” when the mules have