Note 70 — III. HERE FOLLOWETH CONCERNING THE REALM OF PERSIA.
Reading edition
Burnes describes the vast fields of soft sand, formed into ridges, between Bokhara and the Oxus. Their uniformity is remarkable, all having the shape of a horse-shoe, convex towards the north, from which the prevailing wind blows. On this side they slope, inside they are precipitous. The height is from fifteen to twenty feet. “The particles of sand, moving from one mound to another, wheeling in the eddy or interior of the semicircle, and having now and then, particularly under the rays of the sun, much the look of water, an appearance, I imagine, which has given rise to the opinion of moving sands in the desert.” (Bokhara, ii. pp. 1, 2.)
Our author may possibly have heard of the Reg-rawán, or “flowing sand,” of the Koh Daman, near Istalif. (See Wood’s Oxus, p. 181.)