Manuscript of Persia and the Persian Question (Continued) [‎42v] (84/690)

'XVi// .
Sir H. Layard relates that in 1842, Lieutenant Selby and himself
were confronted immediately outside Bund-i-Kir by a huge black
maned lion . 1 It was a curious coincidence that soon after starting
we heard a lion roar a little way off. My guide, who was walking
in front, informed me at the same moment that my horse was so much
accustomed to go in advance, that he would^acilitate my progress by v
dropping to the rear ; an act of friendly consideration on his part for
which I shall ever remember the Arab. The entire country between
Bund-i-kir and Shuster was crowded with game. Wild fowl of
every description, mallard, teal, snipe, plover of two kinds, fran-
colin, sand-grouse, pigeons, jackal—all these I saw within easy shot
in the course of my ride; and a sportsman might without doubt
make a large and varied bag. The fertility of the soil is beyond
conception ; and in the spring-time 4 sjxf=&, Layard has depicted the
island as “ clothed with the most luxuriant vegetation, and enam
elled with flowers of the most brilliant hues, the grass being so high
that it reached to the belly of a horse.” 2 In winter there is no
verdure, and the greater part of the ground is allowed to waste in
jungle and swamp ; no sign of cultivation being visible till I reached
the Arab encampment of Beni Hassan, about twelve miles from
Bund-i-Kir. There the entire population was abroad and astir,
ploughing with horses, mules, buffaloes, bullocks, and even donkeys,
and scattering the seed the moment the rude wooden share had
scraped the surface. In industrious hands this island might become
the granary of south-west Persia, producing not only wheat and
barley, but cotton, rice, maize, tobacco, sesame, indigo, and opium in
almost unlimited amount. Its fertility was well known to the
ancients, and better utilised by them ; and the omniscient Strabo
described the soil as giving a return exceeding one hundred and
even two hundred fold.
In the far East the sun topped the Bakhliari mountains at 7.10
a.m., and threw a radiant gleam upon their snowy caps. A dense
canopy of leaden clouds, hanging just above, with
“ Eagged rims of thunder brooding low
And shadow streaks of rainv**”
- . J .
caused an atmospheric phenomenon which I imagine to be rare, and
which I have nowhere previously seen. It appeared to have the
effect, instead of absorbing the sun’s rays as the disc arose, of resist
ing and throwing them across the heavenf so much so that in the
opposite quarter of the horizon on the west was produced a very
(1) Early Adventures, vol. ii., p. 353. Lions are not uncommon in the jungle and
brushwood bordering on the rivers, particularly the little-known and unexplored Ab-i-
Diz. For some interesting remarks upon their haunts and peculiarities vide the same
v 1 work, vol. i^pjjy 439—447,' '2
(2) Early Adventures } vol. ii., p. 346.
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