The assa foetida shrub also abounded on the neighbouring hills, and we were almost overpowered by the horrible stench exhaled therefrom.  It is collected in its wild state and sent to C[=a]bul and India, yielding a good profit to those who pick it, as it is used very generally throughout the East for kabobs and curries.  We also observed, that day, several coveys of chikore.

At Rhobat is an old caravanserai for travellers, the remains of a very fine and extensive building, with accommodation and apartments all round the square of about twenty-four yards.  It is said to have been constructed in the time of the famous Abdoollah Khan, and was reduced to its present desolate state by Meer Moorad Beg, the chief of Koondooz, who some years ago ravaged the whole of this district, burning and laying waste whatever he could not carry off.

On the 25th of July we marched to Ghoree, a distance of about 21 miles.  As we approached it, we enjoyed a fine prospect of the extensive savannahs of grass so characteristic of Toorkisth[=a]n; many horses were feeding in the distance, and the vale, flanked by low hills, was bounded only by the horizon.  We were told that it extended in a right line upwards of thirty miles, and that it was frequently used for horse-racing, the customary length of the course being upwards of twenty miles.  We were now in the territories of Meer Moorad Beg, a chief of notorious character, but, trusting to the continuance of the good fortune which had hitherto attended us, we did not make ourselves uncomfortable about him.  We could not much admire his town of Ghoree, which, with his fort, was situate on the edge of a morass extending from the limits of the savannah to the foot of the hills—­I should think that the fever so prevalent in these districts must be in a great degree attributable to the absolute want of drainage and the decomposition of vegetable matter.  Its position was most insalubrious, for the marshy swamps commenced at the very base of hills, and thus as it were encircled the savannahs with a belt of miasma.

The ague, which is usually accompanied by fever, is of a kind very difficult to shake off, gradually weakening the sufferer till he sinks under its influence; the natives themselves are by no means free from its strokes, to which attacks every stranger who remains for many days in the vicinity of the marshes is liable.  Though a veil of mystery still covers the particulars of poor Moorcroft’s fate, it seems more than probable that he fell a victim to the fever of this country, though the seed that was sown did not mature till some time after he had quitted it.