It runs high above a wild boulder-strewn almost waterless gill.
Of those who essayed to cross the waterless Haud more than one lost his life.
The karez is a system of underground channelling which usually taps a sub-surface water supply at the foot of some of the many rugged and apparently waterless hills which cover the face of the country.
The Downs are almost without population, waterless and grass-covered, with patches of beech wood.
Farther south, towards Lake Balkash, on the southeastern frontier, is a wide waterless desert, Bek-pak-dala, or Famine Steppe.
