34 JOURNEYS IN PERSIA LETTER rvn

tamarisk, salvias, and euphorbias, their ravines noisy
with torrents, bright springs bursting from their sides,
with lawn-like grass below, and their slopes patched witB;
acres of deep snow, on whose margin purple crocuses,
yellow ranunculuses, and white tulips were springing.
But the grand feature of the march is not the mighty Kuh-
i-Eang on the right, but the magnificent Zard Kuh on
the left, uplifting its snow-fields and snow-crests into the
blue of heaven, on the other side of an ever-narrowing
valley. At the pass of Gal-i-Gav, 11,150 (?) feet in
altitude, where we have halted for two days, the Zard
Kuh approaches the Kuh-i-Eang so closely as to leave
only a very deeply cleft ravine between them. From
this pass there is a very grand view, not only of these-
ranges, but of a tremendous depression into which the
pass leads, beyond which is the fine definite mountain
Kuh-i-Shahan. This pass is the watershed between the
Karun and Ab-i-Diz, though, be it remembered, the latter
eventually unites with the former at Band-i-Kir. All is
treeless.

The Kuh-i-Eang is the only „" real mountain " seen on
the journey hitherto. It is unlike all others, not only
in its huge bulk and gigantic and far-reaching spurs, but
in being clothed. Its name means the " variegated moun-
tain." It has much Devonshire red about it, but clad
as it is now with greenery, its soil and rock ribs cannot
be investigated.

It is a mountain rich in waters, both streams and
springs. It is physically and geographically a centre, a
sort of knot nearly uniting what have been happily
termed the "Outer" and "Inner" ranges of the Bakhtiari
mountains, and it manifestly divides the country into
two regions, which, for convenience' sake, have been
felicitously termed the Bakhtiari country and Upper Elam,
the former lying to the south-east and the latter to the