'Collection of journals and reports received from Captain the Hon G C Napier, Bengal Staff Corps, on special duty in Persia, 1874' [‎12] (25/396)

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up a narrow glen to the hamlet of Kammer, the first stage. Bare
brown hills of gravel and alluvium shut m the glen and hamlet
with its few patches of corn. Notwithstanding an elevation o
5,200 feet, the thermometer showed a temperature ot 95 in i
shade at midday. At night it fell to 53 . ^
4^ July. To Giliard, 23 miles. —Leaving Kammer the road
winds east up a narrow glen which shortly widens out, showing
a little cultivation and low hills on both sides. In 4 miles an
elevation is gained beyond which extends a wide undulating
plateau extending for 18 miles east, and 12 to lo in width ,
bounding it on the north are the lower spurs of Alburz, packed
by the high rocky ridge seamed with snow. To the south the
plateau falls away to a valley in which flows a small stream from
Demavend, beyond is the long dark barren ridge of Karragatch
of considerable height separating the plateau from the plains and
the caravan route. Two small perennial streams traverse the
plateau, the first known as the Boomahmd Kood with a hamlet
of that name on its banks, the second as the Rood-Hmd. Both
support considerable extents of cultivation and large gai ens.
On the Rood-Hind stream is the fine village Siahbund, the popu
lation of which are Kurds transplanted by one of the bhahs,
probably Shah Abbas the Great; there are also other scattered
villages and hamlets of Kurds, who are all Crown tenants, ihe
' soil fs a good and light-looking alluvium mixed with gravel, with
a fair covering of rough grass and wild flowers. In the more
barren parts gravel predominates and a bard dark sandstone rock
crops out. The wheat and barley were light and poor-lookmg
with no straw, but the grain is said to be large and the yield an
average of 25 to 30 fold. A constant supply of water, however,
is required to raise even wheat and barley, and this fine tract,
with a most delightful climate, and a sun not oppressively hot
even at midday in July, is incapable of supporting a population.
There are also no such evidences as exist in the south rersia
of the water supply and irrigated area having been in former
times greater than at present. The east end of the plateau is
broken by a projecting spur of the main range, from the crest ot
which a fine view is obtained over the wide open valley of Dema
vend. The peak of Demavend on the north towers grandly above
the lower ridges from a gap of which issues a green line of gardens ;
which spreads out to a couple of miles in width where traversed
by the road, thence bending westward it contracts, and^ finally
disappears behind the long slopes of the plateau bounding the
valley to the south. Eastwards a barren slope undulates gently
to the sky-line, dotted with but a few green spots of cultivation.
The large village of Demavend lying to the north of the road is
hidden by gardens and tall groves of poplar : it has 400 to 500
houses all inhabited, for the famine was only slightly felt, ihe
population is said to have actually increased by immigration, and
this is testified by the appearance of the valley, which is fully
cultivated; there is not the usual margin of land thrown out of
cultivation.