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JOURNEYS IN PERSIA

LETTER XX

That gorge is a very interesting break in an unin-
teresting and monotonous region, and the broad fall
above the bridge is not without elements of grandeur.
The altitude of the river over which the Pul-i-Hawa hangs
is only 3800 feet, the lowest attained on this journey.
The popular nomenclature is adopted here, but it

A TWIG! BRIDGE.

would be more accurate to call this stream the Ab-i-
Burujird, and to defer conferring the name of Ab-i-Diz
upon it till the two great branches have united far below
this point. These are the Ab-i-Burujird, rising to the
west of Burujird, which with the tributaries which enter
it before it reaches the Tang-i-Bahrain, drains the great
plain of Silakhor, and the Ab-i-Basnoi, a part of which
has been referred to under its local name of Kakulistan,
or " the Curl," which drains the upper part of the Persian