Geographical Journal (Journal of the Royal Geographical Society): Volume VIII, No. 5 [‎52v] (107/154)

506 FROM TEHERAN TOWARDS THE CASPIAN.
Dicturesque than when seen from a distance. Four miles down the valley we
reached our camp at the extremity of the cultivation altitude 6300 feet. Here
Te torrent enters a wild rocky gorge, foaming and boding with a deafening noise,
and yet in the swirls behind the stones trout are harboured as we proved when
whipping these eddies with a fly. How trout come to be in tins river or why
they should exist in this and not in the Jager, or any other river which has a
similar course, viz. from the Elburz range into the great central desert, is an
unexplained mystery. On the 21st we halted, one of our party going after ibex,
the others fishing. Another animal of our caravan met its death here by falling
down a precipice when turned out to graze. A tall coarse sword-grass poisonous
to horses, mules, and asses, grows on the watershed The boundary between adjacent drainage basins. between the Jager and
Sheristanek rivers. The animals, unconscious of its dangerous properties, eat of
it with deadly effect, unless happily prevented from doing so.
On the 22nd our road lay for half a mile down the Sheristanek m er, to where
it joins the Laura, a stream three times the size of, and, if possible, more rapid and
turbulent than, the first-named. Its ochre-coloured waters dashed onwards,
swollen with melted snow. The Dcab, or junction of the two streams, is at a
wild romantic gorge, in which they are lost to sight amid precipitous crags of red
rocks. When united, they bear the name of the Kenj river. There is no road
out of this Kerij, nor indeed out of the Sheristanek valley, more practicable than
that by which we entered, via Uchan. We now followed the left bank of the
Laura, passing northwards through gap and gorge, in red sandstone and conglo
merate, standing rugged and hold with vertical “dip.” Further up-stream, where
the river-banks are edged by a few trees, the views are very picturesque. Where
the strata are less hard, they have weathered into slopes of fine detritus;
down them the peasants come at a great rate, almost as if they were snow-slides.
Ei^ht miles up the Laura we encamped at Qachisar, literally, “head or source of
gypsum,” where the geological character of the country changes, and the mountains
have rounded contours, with some grass, but still not the vestige of a tree. Here,
at an altitude of 6700 feet, we passed a very cold night. On the 23rd, when we
started across the Kendevan pass, ominous white clouds were overhanging the
mountains to the north.
At Gachiser, the main stream of the Laura is crossed by a one-arch bridge, and
its right hank is followed for about three-quarters of a mile. Then its valley is
abandoned, for it turns sharp east. The gorge, down which a small tributary flows,
is followed for another H mile. This gorge had still snow lying in it where the
road takes huge zigzags up the rounded slope of the mountain to the north. In
an hour and three-quarters from Gachiser, the summit of the watershed The boundary between adjacent drainage basins. between
the Caspian and the central plateau of Persia is reached. At an altitude of 10,000
feet, the sandy loam on the south slope of the watershed The boundary between adjacent drainage basins. is covered with flowers ;
many of the vetch tribe and wild fennel grow here in large clumps. The wind at
the top of the pass was bitterly cold; the driving mist was freezing on the posts
placed at intervals to keep the traveller from losing the track. There is a small
refuge near the summit built in brick; in fact, the whole road shows that an
amount of care is bestowed on it such as is observable on no other track in Persia.
The zigzags for the descent on the Caspian side are required for a shorter distance
than for the ascent from the south. In three-quarters of an hour from the summit
we were following the course of one of the branches of the Touchal river, in a
country clearly under the influence of the refreshing rain-clouds from the Caspian.
Grass, yellow irises, ferns, and succulent water-plants fringed the streams.
Further up the mountain-sides, clumps of magnificent columbines, of bluish-purple
with white centres, and scarlet poppies, with blooms the size of breakfast-cups and