3.  “Clumps of date-palms growing near the village showed
     that I had now reached a totally different climate.”
     (Smith’s Report.) And Mr. Abbott says of the same
     region:  “Partly wooded ... and with thickets of reeds
     abounding with francolin and Jirufti partridge.... 
     The lands yield grain, millet, pulse, French- and
     horse-beans, rice, cotton, henna, Palma Christi, and dates,
     and in part are of great fertility....  Rainy season from
     January to March, after which a luxuriant crop of grass.” 
     Across this plain (districts of Jiruft and Rudbar), the
     height of which above the sea, is something under 2000
     feet . . . . . . . . . . . 6
  4. 6-1/2 hours, “nearly the whole way over a most difficult
     mountain-pass,” called the Pass of Nevergun . . . 1
  5.  Two long marches over a plain, part of which is described
     as “continuous cultivation for some 16 miles,” and the rest
     as a “most uninteresting plain” . . . . . 2
          
                                                    —­
                            Total as before . . . . 17

In the previous edition of this work I was inclined to identify Marco’s route absolutely with this Itinerary.  But a communication from Major St. John, who surveyed the section from Kerman towards Deh Bakri in 1872, shows that this first section does not answer well to the description.  The road is not all plain, for it crosses a mountain pass, though not a formidable one.  Neither is it through a thriving, populous tract, for, with the exception of two large villages, Major St. John found the whole road to Deh Bakri from Kerman as desert and dreary as any in Persia.  On the other hand, the more direct route to the south, which is that always used except in seasons of extraordinary severity (such as that of Major Smith’s journey, when this route was impassable from snow), answers better, as described to Major St. John by muleteers, to Polo’s account.  The first six days are occupied by a gentle ascent through the districts of Bardesir and Kairat-ul-Arab, which are the best-watered and most fertile uplands of Kerman.  From the crest of the pass reached in those six marches (which is probably more than 10,000 feet above the sea, for it was closed by snow on 1st May, 1872), an easy descent of two days leads to the Garmsir.  This is traversed in four days, and then a very difficult pass is crossed to reach the plains bordering on the sea.  The cold of this route is much greater than that of the Deh Bakri route.  Hence the correspondence with Polo’s description, as far as the descent to the Garmsir, or Reobarles, seems decidedly better by this route.  It is admitted to be quite possible that on reaching this plain the two routes coalesced.  We shall assume this provisionally, till some traveller gives us a detailed account of the Bardesir route.  Meantime all the remaining particulars answer well.