'Military Report on South-West Persia, Including the Provinces of Khuzistan (Arabistan), Luristan, and Part of Fars' [‎322] (367/466)

322
Deh-Diz to God-i-Bula-
tak, lOa miles. Easy road,
descending the whole
way. Direction west.
Supplies very scarce, ex
cept water and firewood.
Down stream are the
ruins of an old bridge
{vide Schindler's notes
quoted 6(a) ). We did
not see them, but heard
of them. It would not
be difficult to rebuild
this ?
'Stage 5, November 14th. —From Deh-Diz we descend steadily down a water
course to the banks of the Karun, a distance of three
farsakhs, through wooded country. The road not bad
for mules. The guides had preceded us^ and got a raft of
inflated skins covered with fascines of sticks and reeds
ready to ferry our baggage across. The river here was
deep, and flowing say 5 miles an hour, and at this season it
is 40 yards in width. Its banks showed marks of a rise of
10 or 12 feet during spring floods, when the width would
be 60 yards. Our houses and baggage animals had to be
unloaded, and their saddles taken off and then swum
across. Donkeys and sheep are swum over in pairs by
a man with the aid of a mussack. The situation of
God-i-Bulatak is admirably adapted for a flying bridge,
and there is nothing to prevent the working of such a bridge if a good stout
boat were built for the purpose. Laden mules could then make the passage in
a few minutes. The left bank requires a road made to the waters edge, as
it is precipitous for a height of 50 feet. Our 13 mules, with 10 men and 3
horses, took one and a half houiV crossing.
The Ilkhani The paramount chief of certain tribes in south west Iran. was building a brick bridge 20 miles further down the river.
There is a small village near the crossing, where the six or eight men employed
on the ferry live.
5 [a). Deh-Diz contains a fort, a mosque, good stabling, and several guest
houses. The road at 34 miles from the village passes
through another of 50 houses, elevation 5,080 feet. One
and a half miles beyond the village it crosses the Riket stream, elevation 4,860
feet. At 8i miles a garden of wild apricot, fig, and other trees is passed, and
at 10 miles the Kuh-i-Gil is crossed, and at 104 miles the ferry over the Karun
at God-i-Bulatak is reached^ elevation 2,860 feet. The road is generally easy
5tli July.
throughout
Schindler says Mal-i-
Mir was anciently named
Idej or Izej.
(iod-f-Hdlatak to Mal-
f-Mir, 24 miles, road
capable of improvement,
but would be costly.
Direct ion west by north.
Supplies plentiful.
Here we saw ruins
apparently of a caravan
serai. Can this be the
Kal'a-i-Ma d r a s a of
Schiudler, and does the
road go from here to the
ruined bridge over the
Karun ?
# Altitude here 2,980
feet.
Some way up this gorge a side gully is followed to the left, and a curious
Altitude 3 930 , . paved way, the Rah-i-Sultani, leads to the open plain
above. Then a very difficult piece of road is encountered,
as a descent has to be made over the face of a limestone hill rounded in form, and
to all appearance smooth until reached, when the terrible rifts and rubble stones
that break up its surface prove to form one of the worst bits of road we have
yet encountered. A way would have to be bailt up this face^ and for wheel
Stage 6, November 15th. —Left camp 7-15 a.m ., and
did not get into camp on the " teppe 33 in the Mal-i-Mir
plain till 5-30 p. m . The road rises gently from the
river bank and is good; it makes for a gorge, and passes
through it, following a valley between the south-east end
of the Mangasht Range and an outlying spur of that
mountain. The Karun river is here left for good. The
road soon descends again, and is rough for 4 miles to where
it enters a water-course, which is now nearly dry, though
pools in it contain fish 9 inches in length. The course*
is little better than a cleft in the grey cherty compressed
clay rocks, which are here almost vertical. Some fine
oaks were passed. The acorns of the country reach a
length of 34 inches [see page 320),