'GAZETTEER OF PERSIA. VOLUME IV.' [‎136v] (277/652)

264
ISP—ISP
17 miles from Kahlri (q.v.) and 12 from the crest of the watershed range,
which is about 4,800 to 5,000 feet high. Sarbaz is about 16 miles
The Ispatki road is the one usually taken by Jcafilehs and travellers from
Bampur to Sarhad. It branches from the Kulani road at Kahm (q.v.).
Leaving that place a ravine is ascended to the crest of the mam range, a n
ascent Sf 1,100 or 1,200 feet in about five miles. Thence the road descends
the bed of a watercourse, which, for want of a better name, may be called
the Ispatki ravine. The gradient is evidently easy, there being a descent
of 600 or 700 feet in about 12 miles. Lovett, who traversed this route
on the 18th February 1871, gives no particulars whatever of Ispatki itself,
but it is probably a mere halting-place in the ravine, with water, firewood
and camel-forage in tolerable quantities. n ,
The hills through which this march lies are composed of clays, marls,
and limestones, in vertical strata, with occasional beds of sandstone. I he
vegetation is almost exclusively tamarisk and aloe 1
From Ispatki to Sarbaz the road continues to descend the ravine, water
being found everywhere from 5 miles below the camping ground. At 10
miles from Sarbaz (6 from Ispatki ?) date trees and cultivation commence
At 10 miles from Ispatki the ravine joins another from the north, by which
the Kulani road (q.v.) descends. The two form the Sarbaz river which is
followed for 6 miles to that place. It is broad and stony, with a small
perennial stream. The valley is narrow up to Sarbaz, but both the banks
are cultivated. The baggage of Sir F. Goldsmid s party (z.hh and 21st
February 1871) followed this route by mistake, the officers of the mission
having gone by Kulani. The servants reported the road “ very good,
with the exception—and it is an important one—of two narrow gaps where
the animals had to be unloaded. Lovett makes no mention of these or ol
the nature of the road, simply remarking that it was confined to the
river-bed .—(Lovett \ Evan-Swith.)
ISPID —See Isfid.
ISPIDAN, or ISFlDAN, KUH— Elev. 5,547'.—(&/&es.)
Lofty limestone hills, nearly 60 miles east of Bampur, in Persian Balu
chistan. They are part of ranges which divide the low-lying Bampur
plain from the higher region about Magas, etc. Travelling westward from
Magas the watershed is reached 3 miles beyond the halting-place known
as Sar-i-Pahura or Sar-i-Fehruj (q.v.), that is, at about 16^ miles from
Magas village. This watershed appears to be rather sharply defined, but
is not very elevated, being only about 5,000 feet high, that is, some 800
feet only higher than Magas. Westward, however, there is a long descent
through hills to the Bampur plain, which is everywhere _less than 2,000
feet above sea-level. The highest hills, as the Ispidan Kuh and the
Humand peak, appear to rise from lower ground west of and apart from
the watershed. This is certainly the case with Humand, but the eastern
slopes of Ispidan perhaps drain towards Magas. ^ .
St. John thus describes the country between the halting place of bar-i-
Fehruj and Aptar in the Bampur plain.
l No doubt pish —dwarf palm or palmetto (Ghamoerops Eitchiana).