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'GAZETTEER OF PERSIA. VOLUME I' [‎34r] (72/820)

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The record is made up of 1 volume (396 folios). It was created in 1910. It was written in English. The original is part of the British Library: India Office The department of the British Government to which the Government of India reported between 1858 and 1947. The successor to the Court of Directors. Records and Private Papers Documents collected in a private capacity. .

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ATR-ATR
Mr. O’Donovan saw the Atrak from a point a few miles above Chat,
where it is joined by the Sumbar, to its mouth near Hasan Qull. He
says that until close to the delta it flows along the bottom of a steep
sided ravine, varying in breadth from three-quarters of a mile to
400 yards, the banks being from 40 to 60 feet high. The bottom of
this ravine is more or less flat; and in its midst is the river channel
which winds very much, with a canal-like regularity of bank. This
channel varies in width from 12 to 30 feet. Its ordinary depth is from
5 to 6 feet ; but there are very many places where it is much deeper.
The sides of the river slope regularly at an angle of 45°, and owing to the
slippery nature of the loamy soil there are only certain places where it is
possible to bathe. The fordable points are at long intervals, and only exist
from the latter end of August to the end of January. In April 1880 the
river channel was quite full and entirely unfordable, except at one point
about a quarter of a mile below Chat, where the Cossacks were in the
habit of crossing in search of forage in the plains beyond.
The infantry made use of a small raft, on which they ferried themselves
to and fro by means of a stout rope stretched from either bank. The
breadth of the river at this point was about 35 feet. Except at certain
places, the river is inaccessible to four-footed animals; and over its greater
extent to men also, owing to the perpendicular nature and great height
of the sides of the ravine.
All round the entrenched camp of Chat the ground is seamed and scarred
by torrent beds, which nearly all disappear within 100 yards at the edge of
the cliff, and, burrowing into the earth, appear again at its base in the
form of caves.
These burrows make the approach to the camp very dangerous; camels
and horses being liable to fall through. On the northern side of the Atrak,
immediately to the west of Chat, are a series of deep, steep-sided ravines,
by which the winter rainfall makes its way to the river.
The Sumbar flows straight through a ravine precisely similar to that of
the Atrak, and its immediate channel is of about the same dimensions ; but
it ordinarily contains much less water. In April, when the average depth
of the Atrak was from 5 to 6 feet, the Sumbar, close to its junction with the
latter, had little more than a foot of water, and one 'crossed it by an easy
leap. The great size of the ravine, however, indicates that at times the
mass of water must be very considerable. Notwithstanding the great depth
to which both rivers have cut their channels, there is not a single pebble to be
found ; the only solid matter, apart from the indurated clay to be found
being fragments of ancient brick and white glazed tiles, and nodules
of vitreous scoriae from the kilns in which they were made. Small as
was the quantity of water in the Sumbar it was an almost insuperable
obstacle to camels even when not laden. The water of the Atrak is, in
summer, very brackish, and at all times much charged with suspended
marl. A bucket of it allowed to stand for ail hour deposits over an
inch of fine, yellow mud.

About this item

Content

The item is Volume I of the four-volume Gazetteer of Persia (1910 edition).

The volume covers the provinces of Astarabad, Shahrud-Bustam, and Khorasan, or such part of them as lies within the following boundaries: on the north the Russo-Persian boundary; on the east the Perso-Afghan boundary; on the south and south-west, a line drawn from the Afghan boundary west through Gazik to Birjand, and the road from Birjand to Kirman, and from Kirman to Yazd; and on the west the road from Yazd to Damghan and thence to Ashraf.

The gazetteer includes entries on villages, towns, administrative divisions, districts, provinces, tribes, halting-places, religious sects, mountains, hills, streams, rivers, springs, wells, dams, passes, islands and bays. The entries provide details of latitude, longitude, and elevation for some places, and information on history, communications, agriculture, produce, population, health, water supply, topography, military intelligence, coastal features, ethnography, trade, economy, administration and political matters.

Information sources are provided at the end of each gazetteer entry, in the form of an author or source’s surname, italicised and bracketed.

The volume contains an index map (from a later edition of the Gazetteer of Persia ), dated January 1917, on folio 397.

The volume also contains a glossary (folios 393-394); and note on weights and measures (folios 394v-395).

Prepared by the General Staff Headquarters, India.

Printed at the Government Monotype Press, India.

Extent and format
1 volume (396 folios)
Physical characteristics

Foliation: the foliation sequence (used for referencing) commences at the front cover with 1, and terminates at the inside back cover with 398; these numbers are written in pencil, are circled, and are located in the top right corner of the recto The front of a sheet of paper or leaf, often abbreviated to 'r'. side of each folio. Pagination: the file also contains an original printed pagination sequence.

Written in
English in Latin script
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'GAZETTEER OF PERSIA. VOLUME I' [‎34r] (72/820), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, IOR/L/MIL/17/15/2/1, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100037360147.0x000049> [accessed 29 March 2024]

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