'Lord Curzon's Notes on Persia' [‎392r] (784/1386)

( 11 )
It was not until the 28th of May, more than a month after arrival at
Semnan, that Lieut. Vaughan again set forth on his main journey. But
in the interval he was not idly reposing. The town he had reached was
not, it is true, a Capua: still, compared to the roughing and privations
of the Khurasan Desert, it must have had its attractions. Not many
days passed, however, before he was again in the saddle—making an
excursion into the desert to the Kuh-i-Gugird, the mass of hills which he
had left behind him unexplored on the upward march. At the Chashma
i-Chah Mishmis, or “ spring of the well Mishmis," on the edge of the
kavir, he had observed, on a vast sandy plain to the westward, the Siah
Kuh, a solitary hill with a flattened summit suggestive of bygone volcanic
action. Between this and the northern Kuh-i-Gugird—to which it is
erroneously joined in existing maps, intervened an extensive salt-marsh.
Three days before arrival at Semnan he had (as already shown) skirted
the Kuh-i-Gugird, and the appearance of the mountains included under
that designation had caused him to entertain the notion of surveying
the surrounding country to the south and south-east from their summit*
His project was not realised, though a vigorous attempt was made to put
it into execution. After getting within 15 miles of the range, the further
progress of his camels was checked by swampy ground; whereupon, he
continued his route on foot, carrying with him water and food. Un
fortunately, in accomplishing two-thirds of the ascent of the hills, he
was seized with sickness and compelled to retrace his steps. The follow
ing extract from his diary shows that his little expedition was not wholly
unproductive. “ I found at the north foot of the range a thicket con
sisting of bushes of every description varying from 3 to 14 feet in height
and extending westward for miles; probably eastward also, though I
was unable to verify the supposition. On the upper parts of the hills grew
occasional tufts of grass, on which the wild sheep and other game, whose
footmarks were plentiful, fed. In one of the ravines I saw two very
curious birds’ nests exactly opposite each other, and built out from the
cliffs : they were about 40 feet above my head, and formed of sticks
woven like a hamper; their shape was cylindrical and their estimated
dimensions were two feet six inches by one foot. The only birds visible
were some large ones soaring at a great height overhead.”
Leaving Semnah,as we have said, on the 28th May, and moving in
a direction generally east or south-east, he followed a hilly and, with
small exception, desolate route skirting the Khurasan desert at an eleva
tion varying from 5250 to 3080 feet, descending to the lower figure at
his eighth day’s stage, Turut. This he describes as a very ancient town
with a population of 800 or 1000 souls. It once possessed a citadel of
which the ruins still remain. Wheat and other crops are cultivated
here; but it is only separated by 6 or 8 miles from the dreary kavir
whose brown expanse is visible stretching away like an ocean bounding
the horizon southwards over an arc of nearly 180°.
Ten marches further, at the small walled town of Doruna, with its
300 to 400 well-disposed inhabitants, he has descended from a maximum
elevation of 4700 to 3900 feet. Up to this point there is little to be
recorded of his march. At one time he observed evidence of Turkoman
inroads in the ruins of a ransacked and deserted town ; at another he
saw myriads of live locusts swarming over every atom of vegetation,
while a well in the neighbourhood was fillled with their putrid bodies.
On one occasion he was overtaken by darkness when separated from his
followers, and had to wander in perplexity until the sign of lighted fires
drew his attention to the hill on which his servants had bivouacked.
The most exciting incident was, perhaps, a row between his men and the
camel-driver, during which the latter had several of his teeth knocked
out. In a geographical point of view, his account of the salt river Kal
Mura, known higher up as the “ Abresham,” is interesting. It is thus
describedThe river comes from the north-east through a narrow
valley. Its banks are thickly covered with green bushes, tufts of grass
and all sorts of shrubs for at least fifty yards’ distance on either side.
To the south it runs away into the desert towards its unknown destina
tion, its course being marked for a long way by green bushes. Some
40 or 50 miles off it is said to terminate in a vast lake. People living