'Military Report on South-West Persia, Including the Provinces of Khuzistan (Arabistan), Luristan, and Part of Fars' [‎308] (353/466)

808
R oute N o. 4 — contd.
From Isfahan to Behbahdn and Bandar-Dildm, -contd.
S 6C
S-S
SCO
Time.
Names of towns, villages, &e.
Distances in -
miles.
Interme- Total .
diate.
Eemarks.
palm and hard wood trees. It is bordered to the south by a belt of low sandhills similar to
those just passed {see page 43),
18
a.m.
11-45
ZEITtJN OE CHHAM
(elevation 760').
24
391
Village, surrounded by well irrigated
lands, growing wheat, barley, &c.; palm
trees are plentiful; barometer, 28 , 8' /
. - (760 ' ) *
The villagers complain of being heavily taxed, and that oppression has ruined the district;
the soil of the valley, clay, is very fertile, and it is well irrigated. The crops had been har
vested and the fields lay fallow. Seventy years ago Chham was said to contain 2,000 inhabit
ants ; it contains now 200 to 300.
To ford the river, which is at this season both deep and rapid, it is necessary to pass up
stream about three miles and to ford it to the south-west of the village of Sardasht, where it
flows in three channels; its right banks are low and pebbly ; its bed is covered with boulders;
its width is from 600 to 800 yards ; the deepest channel is about 3' 6" deep; it must be forded
with care ; its right bank is fringed by a belt of low bushes ; its left bank is elevated 20' to
30' over the stream. From the camp, above the ford on the left bank, Chham bore 310°;
Sardasht, 40°. There are a few huts and a little cultivation close at hand on the left bank
near the ford.
The road to Shiraz leads through Sfah Poshan and Daulatabad over the Ghieh pass to
Dugumbazan {see page 3S6).
a. m. ISth June 1884,
4-5
4-50
5-10
Camp
HindiyAn
river.
391
Barometer 28 , 9' / ; temperature 70°. The
hard pebbly road ascends over the barren
plain bordering the left bank of the river.
Barometer 28 , 6' / ; temperature 72° (880').
Enters the low sandstone hills, passing
over a stretch of conglomerate rock and
ridged sandstone, where difficult inclines
are frequent, and traverses an irregular
sea of low undulations ; the path is generally good and 6' to 12' wide ; here and there are
steep and narrow inclines ; these hills are less rocky and more clayey than those to the north
of the Hindiyan river. They are altogether barren and waterless ; the watercourses are dry,
and the water in the pools along their beds bitter.
7-35 ...... ... ... The track over clay is dusty.
9 ... ... Emerges from the hills and enters the
plain stretching to the gulf; barometer
29 , 15' / (360'). A poor grass, choked by
The road is a broad track over clay.
9-40 Daubay ... A ruined village and a well of slightly
brackish water, the first water met with
on this side of the Hindiyan valley.
The plain grows large crops of wheat
and barley, now harvested ; much straw lay about the fields, and large flocks of sheep ^.nd goats
graze in the vicinity chiefly upon the stubble ; the grass is scant and burnt up ; no trees or
shrubs grow.
thistles, covers it.
i 11-45
Thantjb
A small walled enclosure, the abode of a
few herdsmen, whose flocks of sheep and
goats are numerous. There is here a well
of good water.