country is absolutely without streams, and would be uninhabitable were it not for the kanats or kareezes—­subterranean channels made by art for the conveyance of spring water to be used in irrigation.  The most desolate portion of the mountain tract is towards the north and north-east, where it adjoins upon the third region, which is the worst of the three.  This is a portion of the high tableland of Iran, the great desert which stretches from the eastern skirts of Zagros to the Hamoon, the Helmend, and the river of Subzawur.  It is a dry and hard plain, intersected at intervals by ranges of rocky hills, with a climate extremely hot in summer and extremely cold in winter, incapable of cultivation, excepting so far as water can be conveyed by kanats, which is, of course, only a short distance.  The fox, the jackal, the antelope, and the wild ass possess this sterile and desolate tract, where “all is dry and cheerless,” and verdure is almost unknown.

Perhaps the two most peculiar districts of.  Persia are the lake basins of Neyriz and Deriah-i-Nemek.  The rivers given off from the northern side of the great mountain chain between the twenty-ninth and thirty-first parallels, being unable to penetrate the mountains, flow eastward towards the desert; and their waters gradually collect into two streams, which end in two lakes, the Deriah-i-Nemek and that of Neyriz, or Lake Bakhtigan.  The basin of Lake Neyriz lies towards the north.  Here the famous Bendamir, and the Pulwar or Kur-ab, flowing respectively from the north-east and the north, unite in one near the ruins of the ancient Persepolis, and, after fertilizing the plain of Merdasht, run eastward down a rich vale for a distance of some forty miles into the salt lake which swallows them up.  This lake, when full, has a length of fifty or sixty miles, with a breadth of from three to six.  In summer, however, it is often quite dry, the water of the Bendamir being expended in irrigation before reaching its natural terminus.  The valley and plain of the Bendamir, and its tributaries, are among the most fertile portions of Persia, as well as among those of most historic interest.

The basin of the Deriah-i-Nemek is smaller than that of the Neyriz, but it is even more productive.  Numerous brooks and streams, rising not far from Shiraz, run on all sides into the Nemek lake, which has a length of about fifteen and a breadth of three or three and a half miles.  Among the streams is the celebrated brook of Hafiz, the Rocknabad, which still retains “its singular transparency and softness to the taste.”  Other rills and fountains of extreme clearness abound, and a verdure is the result, very unusual in Persia.  The vines grown in the basin produce the famous Shiraz wine, the only good wine which is manufactured in the East.  The orchards are magnificent.  In the autumn “the earth is covered with the gathered harvest, flowers, and fruits; melons, peaches, pears, nectarines, cherries, grapes, pomegranates; all is a garden, abundant in sweets and refreshment.”