"سيستان. تقرير الري للجنة التحكيم الفارسية-الأفغانية، ١٩٠٢-١٩٠٥. المجلد I. تقرير وملاحق. شيملا: إدارة الخارجية بالحكومة في الهند، ١٩٠٦" [ظ‎‎١‎٨‎٨] (٥٠٠/٣٨١)

174
[App. 8.
at a low level, unless the wind is filtered through camel thorn {khar) bushes
kept wet—an arrangement called a khar khana, literally a place for that is
worked in all respects like a khas khas tattie. Two rooms should not be connected
to the same badgir ; the sound travels through the openings in the walls and
destroys the privacy of the rooms.
There are photographs of the Consulate^ and the Bank Buildings. No
copies of the plans were kept; the original drawings of the Bank buildings are in
possession of the Bank; but Mistri Ganga Singh has a photograph of the plan of
the Bank Manager’s house, which has more rooms than the Assistant Manager’s
house. A large number of ancient buildings were measured and drawn by Babu
Ghulam Kadir; these (filed among the. plans) will give the sizes of rooms and
dimensions of walls which can be easily built in Seistan.
The interesting and useful experience gained in building these houses for
the Bank has been collected in notes by Lala Thakur Dass and Zilladar Amir
Singh which may now be given.
Steel Beams*
The beams where designed to be not more than 16 feet long or two Indian
maunds in weight; but experience proved that beams 20 feet long and 2’5 to
three Indian maunds in weight could have been brought out on camels.
The only real difficulty in the carriage of beams was from Quetta to
Nushki, and then only on the short section of the road from Kishingi to Nushki,
because the road is carried close to the hill-side at many places. At these places
the loads had to be altered, so that the beams lie along the camels back instead
of across. Eight men had to walk with each camel to manipulate the beam at
bad places, so that a long time was occupied in working the kafila over that
section of the road. The kafila took 24 days from Quetta to Nushki and 42 days
from Nushki to Seistan or 66 days in all, and arrived in Seistan about the end
of August.f The railway has now been extended past this Ghat Section to
Nushki; the road and the grazing from Nushki to Seistdn is good, so that in
future l there should be much less difficulty in getting out these loads. Bags
of grass or bhusa wffiere placed on either side of the camel saddles and the beams
were loaded cross-ways.
Some particularly big camels carried 4 of the 16' steel beams a load of 8
or 9 maunds. Many camels carried 6 beams 8 feet long, weighing nearly 7
Indian maunds, while a smaller camel was loaded with four such beams weighing
about 4J Indian maunds. A large camel carried 4 sleepers io' long and a small
camel tw T o. The rate paid for all the material carried whether beams, wood work
or stores was 4 pies per maund per mile. The distance is 600 miles. The
general average of the loads the mistri said was 5 maunds a camel, so that each
camel earned Rs. 62^ on the journey which lasted a little over two months. The
rate per maund was 12J rupees, so that the cost of the carriage of the steel
beams was more than twice its value at Quetta; the proportionate enhancement
of value of timber work was even greater. Now that the railway has reached
Nushki the rate, as well as the distance, will be less, as Nushki is a much more
popular place with camel-owners than Quetta; there is more grazing and the too
miles of difficult road through the passes is avoided.
The work at the Bank was pushed on through the winter, when days are
The cost of the work at the Bank. short an d cold and the cost of work was
no doubt much enhanced thereby, as the
Seistdni works better when the weather is pleasant. The gangs employed were
* During 1903 steel beams 16 feet long, g^inches deep and 4inches broad, weighing four maunds each, had been brought
out to rest-houses on the trade Route.
t The caravan travelled along the trade route in kafila ol 300 camels and experienced no difficulty for grazing or
for water.
+ Since the above was written the following notice in the Public Press has been issued by the political officer in charge
° clNi° Ute .’u , b , e . see ? t ^ at . t he rates of carriage to Meshed are now less than they were in 1904 to Seistan.
Now that the Ouetta-Nushki radway is open for traffic, merchandise for Seistan and Persia can be booked from
any part ot India direct to Nushki, where arrangements have been made for the supply of camel transport for the onward
journey. Nushki is 9/ m.les nearer to Se.stdn than Quetta. The rate of camel hire from Nushki to Meshed is Rs. 9-6
per maund and to Seistan Rs. 4 per maund, the former rate being equal to that obtaining on the Bandar Abbas-Meshed
’’TV Tbe f ca "^ se , r , V ! Ce between Nushki and Seistan and Meshed has also been accelerated. The political officer in charge
of the route at Nushki will furnish full information on application.