ide there was a salt lake of one hundred yards in
diameter, sunk in a deep natural basin. The water was intensely saline. On
the other side of the road, and a quarter of a mile distant, is an extinct
volcano, the crater of which, near two hundred feet deep, is a salt lake,
with a trachytic cone three hundred feet high rising from the centre. From
the slope of the mountain we overlooked another and somewhat deeper plain,
extending to the north and west. It was bounded by broken peaks, all of
which betrayed a volcanic origin. Far before us we saw the tower on the
hill of Kara-bounar, our resting-place for the night. The road thither was
over a barren plain, cheered here and there by patches of a cushion-like
plant, which was covered with pink blossoms. Mr. Harrison scared up some
coveys of the frankolin, a large bird resembling the pheasant, and
enriched our larder with a dozen starlings.

Kara-bounar is built on the slope of a mound, at the foot of which stands
a spacious mosque, visible far over the plain. It has a dome, and two
tall, pencil-like towers, similar to those of the Citadel-mosque of Cairo.
Near it are the remains of a magnificent khan-fortress, said to have been
built by the eunuch of one of the former Sultans. As there was no water in
the wells outside of the town, we entered the khan and pitched the tent
in its grass-grown court. Six square pillars of hewn stone made an aisle
to our door, and the lofty, roofless walls of the court, 100 by 150 feet,
inclosed us. Another court, of similar size, communicated with it by a
broad portal, and the remains of baths and bazaars lay beyond. A handsome
stone fountain, with two streams of running water, stood in front of the
khan. We were royally lodged, but almost starved in our splendor, as only
two or three Turcomans remained out of two thousand (who had gone off with
their herds to the mountains), and they were unable to furnish us with
provisions. But for our frankolins and starlings we should have gone
fasting.

The mosque was a beautiful structure of white limestone, and the galleries
of its minarets were adorned with rich arabesque ornaments. While the
muezzin was crying his sunset-call to prayer, I entered the portico and
looked into the interior, which was so bare as to appear incomplete. As we
sat in our palace-court, after dinner, the moon arose, lighting up the
niches in the walls, the clusters of windows in the immense eastern gable,
and the rows of mass