Page:Kennedy, Robert John - A Journey in Khorassan (1890).djvu/67

Rh to the bitter complaints preferred by the villagers against the high-handed proceedings of the inhabitants of Russian Chacha, who forcibly prevent Persian Chacha deriving the full benefit of its rich water supply, in order that a large portion of it may flow across the boundary.

On Monday,March 31st, we started at nine for a short day's march of some twenty miles to Karatagan, passing under the boundary cliffs in a north-by-west direction. We then followed along a narrow, barren valley, bounded on each side by sandy hills, where no sign of life was visible, save the sudden appearance of a small herd of deer, which, startled by our approach, skimmed swiftly across the valley and over the hills until they disappeared on the other side of the sandy and sun-beaten crests. After riding about ten miles, a distant view of the outer hills of Kelat-i-Nadiri was obtained, and four miles further on our good, but stony, track turned north, and winding in between some curious sugar-loaf shaped hillocks, brought us at noon, after a twenty miles' ride, to the well-wooded, well-watered,and cultivated village of