The capital of Seistan is divided into two sections--northern and southern; although so long the centre of local government, it reflects at first a somewhat cheerless and dilapidated appearance. The absence of roads about the city and the generally neglected condition of Husseinabad, the southern town, set up a feeling of disappointment in those who see the place for the first time. Beyond these two towns have sprung up in the last few years the neat buildings of the British Consulate, which may be said to constitute a third part of the capital, with Captain Macpherson in charge of Anglo-Indian interests. Separated from the rest of the city by a broad stretch of level ground, some acres in extent, it occupies an admirable site and has the advantage of room for extension, should it, at any time, be thought advisable to embark upon enlargement. Between two rows of buildings is a wide space, more nearly a square than a street, at the end of which the Union Jack flies. Behind the main block on the south side of the square is a mosque. The principal premises cover a space of about 150 yards by 70 yards, the whole site consisting roughly of about 13 acres. Alongside the consulate stand the imposing premises of the British bank, a branch of the Imperial Bank of Persia, comprising several excellent houses and a well-kept garden. Husseinabad is little more than a collection of small-domed mud-houses, built, irrespective of ground plan, wheresoever fancy dictated and placed in the middle of a vast plain. Here and there a windmill of curious shape--usually stationary in the winter months, but wanting only the fierce blasts of the _Bad-i-sad-o-bist roz_ or wind of 120 days, which blows unceasingly in the summer months, to rouse it to a state of wild activity--stands conspicuously among the surrounding houses. Beyond this the residences of the Russian Consul and the Chief Mullah are the only other objects likely to attract attention. The former, no longer the largest house in the town, is also badly situated, being enclosed on three sides by houses and on the fourth by a graveyard, which stretches from the Consulate to the walls of Nasratabad. The Russian Consulate itself, a rectangular building enclosing two courtyards opening into one another, has been, in reality, converted from native houses. It rejoices in an upper storey; a cluster of domes--each room possessing a separate dome--forms the roof, above which stands a sorry-looking flagstaff. [Illustration: GATES OF NASRATABAD]