running nearly due north and south.  Its greatest length is estimated at forty-five miles, its width varies, but is generally from ten to sixteen miles.  At one point, however, nearly opposite to Kodj Hissar, the lake narrows to a distance of no more than five miles; and here a causeway has been constructed from shore to shore, which, though ruined, still affords a dry pathway in the summer.  The water of the Touz-Ghieul is intensely salt, containing at some seasons of the year no less than thirty-two per cent of saline matter, which is considerably more than the amount of such matter in the water of the Dead Sea.  The surrounding plain is barren, in places marshy, and often covered with an incrustation of salt.  The whole scene is one of desolation.  The acrid waters support no animal organization; birds shun them; the plain grows nothing but a few stunted and sapless shrubs.  The only signs of life which greet the traveller are the carts of the natives, which pass him laden with the salt that is obtained with ease from the saturated water.

The Zerreh or Sea of Seistan—­called sometimes the Hamun, or “expanse”—­is situated in the Seistan Desert on the Great Iranic plateau, and consequently at an elevation of (probably) 3000 feet.  It is formed by the accumulation of the waters brought down by the Helmend, the Haroot-rud, the river of Khash, the Furrah-rud and other streams, which flow from the mountains of Afghanistan, with converging courses to the south-west.  It is an extensive basin, composed of two arms, an eastern and a western.  The western arm, which is the larger of the two, has its greatest length from N.N.E. to S.S.W., and extends in this direction about ninety miles.  Its greatest width is about twenty-five miles.  The eastern arm is rather more than forty miles long, and from ten to twenty broad.  It is shaped much like a fish’s tail.  The two arms are connected by a strait seven or eight miles in width, which joins them near their northern extremities.  The water of the lake, though not salt, is black and has a bad taste.  Fish support life in it with difficulty, and never grow to any great size.  The lake is shallow, not much exceeding a depth of three or four feet.  It contracts greatly in the summer, at which time the strait connecting the two arms is often absolutely dry.  The edges of the lake are clothed with tamarisk and other trees; and where the rivers enter it, sometimes by several branches, the soil is rich and cultivation productive; but elsewhere the sand of the desert creeps up almost to the margin of the water, clothed only with some sickly grass and a few scattered shrubs.