Geographical Journal (Journal of the Royal Geographical Society): Volume VIII, No. 5 [‎54r] (110/154)

509
FROM TEHERAN TOWARDS THE CASPIAN.
One hour and twenty minutes from the pagoda, and we are at the end of the next
great spur, and 400 feet below the former. Here the zigzags begin again with
a vengeance, and we decide to stop for breakfast. Gasteiger Khan has chosen this
point as another suitable halting-place for royalty, and an elevated platform with a
rude stone seat gives an excellent place to spread our carpet. The view from this
platform (named the “ Takht-i-Shah,” or King’s throne) is in its way as fine as that
from the “ pagoda. ’ Looking up-stream, you seem to be absolutely in the centre
of the valley or causeway. One thousand feet below, still invisible in its tortuous
chasm, runs the course of the river. Picturesque precipices, fringed with forest,
scored with cascades, and rich with verdure wherever grass can grow, lead the eye
up to gentler slopes and park-like clumps accidentally spared by the charcoal-burner,
whose fire is ever at work, but is unable to more than temporarily unclothe these
verdant mountains, buch fairy glades and cool grots did we look into across the
chasm! hat a place for shikar! But what a chance of breaking your neck and
of losing your quarry if you killed it! Whilst we were thus soliloquizing, the sound
of three shots rang out from across the chasm, and the sense of distance and the
vastness of the scene was brought home to us by the fact that our three pairs of
eyes could not see the smoke of the shots, much less the game or the hunter. A
passing peasant informed us that the sportsman was one Hidayat by name, and
that he was after ibex, of which he had killed two on the previous day. How this
man had got news from such a distance, for there was no way nearer than round by
\ aliabad, was a puzzle to us. He looked too much a man ingenui vultus to have
invented his facts for our benefit; yet, in spite of his manner 'and appearance, we
very much doubted them. Looking down-stream, the rift is observed through which
the Ogham river comes to meet the Chel-hauz, and the latter shows itself, a foam
ing white streak, for a few short twists of its madding course. There is no sign of
a definite opening through which the river can escape to the sea; ridge interlocks
ridge, and snow-capped mountains rise into the distant sky, apparently leaving no
means of exit. After breakfast, our baskets were filled with hart’s-tongue, spleen-
wort, Adiantum nigrum, and polipodium ferns. Many varieties of seedum were seen
in bloom, one species being almost as large as a house-leek. Homan laurel and
grass-fern were plentiful.
The morning of the 25th broke cloudless and bright. Two of our party were
preparing to make an exploration seaward, to trace the egress of the waters to which
our attention had been drawn, when the two shikaris of the Nasru’s-Saltaneh
arrived in camp with the news that they had marked two bears up-stream in the
Shah’s preserves, and that they were sleeping amid brushwood and tall grass in one-
of the mountain valleys, only a few miles from our recently traversed road. The
information seemed so authentic, and the men who brought it gave such straight
forward replies to our cross-questions, that all other arrangements were put aside
in favour of a proposed bear-hunt. Accordingly, we filed out of camp, and took
the road to the Keravend pass, revisiting the hill which had attracted us by its
luxuriant flowers, but on the summit of which the main object was now a bevy of
tawny-coloured vultures awaiting an opportune moment to assail the carcase of a
horse. We were soon joined by the Shikarchi-Bashi and four beaters, or keepers
of the royal preserves; but they professed ignorance as to the presence of the bears,,
and the first-named functionary took upon himself to deny the truth of the report
about them. His action did not, however, shake our confidence in the veracity of
the Nasru’s-Saltaneh’s men.
Having come out of the scrub on to the grass of the upper mountain slopes,
we were sitting at luncheon by a stream, when our informants were seen to-
conduct the Shikarchi Bashi over a neighbouring crest; and ere we had completed-.
No. Y.— November, 1896. 2 m