XXVI., p. 149.  “On leaving the Castle [of the Old Man], you ride over fine plains and beautiful valleys, and pretty hill-sides producing excellent grass pasture, and abundance of fruits, and all other products....  This kind of country extends for six days’ journey, with a goodly number of towns and villages, in which the people are worshippers of Mahommet.  Sometimes also you meet with a tract of desert extending for 50 or 60 miles, or somewhat less, and in these deserts you find no water, but have to carry it along with you....  So after travelling for six days as I have told you, you come to a city called Sapurgan....”

Sven Hedin remarks:  “From this it is apparent that the six days’ journey of fine country were traversed immediately before Marco Polo reached Sapurgan.  Sir Henry Yule says in a note:  ’Whether the true route be, as I suppose, by Nishapur and Meshed, or, as Khanikoff supposes, by Herat and Badghis, it is strange that no one of those famous cities is mentioned.  And we feel constrained to assume that something has been misunderstood in the dictation, or has dropped out of it.’  Yule removes the six days of fine country to the district between Sebsevar and Meshed, and considers that for at least the first day’s marches beyond Nishapur Marco Polo’s description agrees admirably with that given by Fraser and Ferrier.

“I travelled between Sebsevar and Meshed in the autumn of 1890, and I cannot perceive that Marco Polo’s description is applicable to the country.  He speaks of six days’ journey through beautiful valleys and pretty hillsides.  To the east of Sebsevar you come out into desert country, which, however passes into fertile country with many villages.[2] Then there comes a boundless dreary steppe to the south.  At the village Seng-i-kal-i-deh you enter an undulating country with immense flocks of sheep.  ’The first stretch of the road between Shurab and Nishapur led us through perfect desert..; but the landscape soon changed its aspect; the desert passed by degrees into cultivated lands, and we rode past several villages surrounded by fields and gardens....  We here entered the most fertile and densely peopled region in Khorasan, in the midst of which the town of Nishapur is situated.’  Of the tract to the east of Nishapur I say:  ’Here are found innumerable villages.  The plain and slopes are dotted with them.  This district is extraordinarily densely inhabited and well cultivated.’  But then all this magnificence comes to an end, and of the last day’s journey between Kademgah and Meshed I write:  ’The country rose and we entered a maze of low intricate hillocks....  The country was exceedingly dreary and bare.  Some flocks of sheep were seen, however, but what the fat and sleek sheep lived on was a puzzle to me....  This dismal landscape was more and more enlivened by travellers....  To the east stretched an undulating steppe up to the frontier of Afghanistan.’