'GAZETTEER OF PERSIA. VOLUME IV.' [‎220v] (445/652)

432
MIR—MIR
was supposed to join the Talab, and thence branched off along the crest
of the Kacha Kuh to the Kuh-i-Malik Siah. Such a point of junction
however, between the two rivers does not exist ; with the result that
there arose in the neighbourhood of Mirjawa a small area of country, the
ownership of which was in dispute.
The reason for this discrepancy lies in the fact that the Boundary Com
missioners were mistaken in supposing that the true Talab river flowed past
Mirjawa, and that the so-called Mirjawa river ran in a clear well-defined
course into the Talab. In reality it is the Dar-i-Ghlaban which runs past
Mirjawa, and it does not receive the name of Talab until it passes
the Kuh-i-Rlhl, and reaches the junction of the Rlhl nala, 28 miles below
Kaleh Safid, or according to other authorities, the Talab spring,
41 miles below Kaleh Safid. At the first named place water oozes up for the
first time in the bed of the river, and forms pools {Talab) from which
its nomenclature is derived.
The Dar-i-Ghlaban river, where it passes the Mirjawa cultivation, is an
insignificant dry sandy Yiala bed, only 20 yards wide and about 2 feet
deep. ...
The Ladls river on'issuing from the hills, spreads out into a wide fen
sloping to the Dar-i-Ghiaban, and the stream, w 7 hich at first has a consider
able volume of water, gradually diminishes, but seldom entirely dries up.
The lower portion of this stream is sometimes called the Mlrjaw-a river, but
there is no indication whatsoever of a main channel running down this
deltaic fan, which is here a series of shallow gravel mlds radiating from
the upper Ladls river valley to the Bar-i-Ghlaban. In flood time its
waters spill broadcast over the fan right down to the Dar-i-Ghlaban, so
that it is impossible to say where at any particular point is the junction
of the Ladls or Mirjawa river with the Dar-i-Ghlaban.
In April 1901, owing to depredations of DamanI marauders, and
their threatening attitude with regard to the Nushki-Slstan trade route,
Captain Webb-Ware, Political Assistant, Chagai, thought it advisable to
establish a levy post in the neighbourhood of Mlrjatva, which he did on
the right bank of the Dar-i-Ghalban, in the angle formed by the above
named river and the most northerly of the nalds into which the Mirjawa
river divides. This is a spot, which, owung to the absence of definite
boundaries, might well fall within the British border.
He subsequently prevented a Belgian Customs Post being establish ed
there, on the grounds that it was not Persian territory, and that one bad
already been formed at Ladls, which was fully able to deal w 7 ith all existing
trade. .
Meanwhile representations had been made by the Persian to the British
Government against the so-called violation of Persian territory, and as a con
sequence, the levy post at Mirjawa was evacuated and destroyed on the 4th
April 1902, and a new one established on the left bank of the Dar-i-Ghlaban,
opposite Mirjawa, on ground over which there could be no dispute.
This new post was called Padaha, to distinguish it from the demolished
post at Mirjawa, though there is also another Padaha between Ladls and
Mirjawa, with which it is liable to be confused. The Persian Customs Post
was at the same time moved from Ladls to Mirjawa, and placed under
Slstan. . ...