'GAZETTEER OF PERSIA. VOLUME I' [‎83v] (171/820)

150
BAR—DAR
thus included consists of the southern slopes of, and spurs descending
from, the mountains of Kuchan, or the Allahu Akbar Kuh, the whole
, open'portion of the valley watered by the voluminous Duringar river, and
the spur of the Atak chain enclosing it to the south. Its total length
from east to west is nearly 40 miles, and its average breadth about
SO miles, giving an area of about 1,200 square miles, of which it may be
reckoned 400 square miles are level and more or less cultivable.
I Plain. This plain or valley is one of the most-favoured spots in Khora-
san. It receives the whole drainage of a valley 70 to 80 miles long,
and is completely encircled by mountains rising at many points up to 7,000
and 8,000 feet in height. It has an elevation of 1,200 feet at Muham-
madabad, a fertile soil, and fine pasturage. From the crest of the Allahu
Akbar pass which overhangs the valley, 23 large villages, each with exten
sive gardens and vineyards, may be counted ; and cultivation extends in an
unbroken sheet from the slopes of the mountains on either side to the
river banks. To the south-east and west the mountains rise to a great
height and form an almost unbroken wall with short, steep, buttress-like
spurs. To the north a chain of lower hills (the Kizil Baiar, an 5ff-shoot
from the Daman-i-Kuh), rising, however, at one point to a considerable
height, completes the enclosure. There is a gap in the west where the
Duringar river enters, and another north-west, known as the Dehaneh-i-
1 ’Ishqabad, and a third north, by which the river joins the ocean-like expanse
of the Kivan desert. , i i- n
Darreh Gaz Passing through this northern gap and the low lulls
confining it, the character of the country and soil changes at once. The
soil becomes sandy and saline, and the hill slopes barren. The whole
aspect of the landscape is arid, parched, and forbidding, save where the
course of the river and the lands irrigated from it are chequered with culti
vation, green pastures, and thickets of tamarisk {gaz), willow, alder, and
thorny scfub. The villages lie along the border of the river, and to the
right and left, to a distance of 8 or 10 miles from the hill slopes ; each
one is a little oasis in the sandy desert. In the spring a green herbage,
affording good pasturage, springs up, covering the plain wherever it is not
already covered by shifting sands.
The rice fields are 16 miles down the course of a small stream running
towards the plain of Darreh Gaz. There are a few towers built for protection,
but no fixed settlement. The crops used to be as often reaped by the
Turkomans as by the lawful owners, but since the occupation of the Akhal
bv Russia in 1881, and of other Turkoman districts later on, all Turkoman
raids have ceased. The poor people of the Atak villages that have pass
ed into Russian possession have certainly accepted Russian rule as a boon,
as it has brought with it security from the constant attacks of their maraud
ing neighbours—a security that their own Government was unable to give
them There was not a house in the 20 Atak villages that had not lost
some member killed or carried off into hopeless slavery. The price for
which a man could be ransomed was from 25 to 50 tumans—a, sum far
bevond the reach of the ordinary villagers.
For the first few miles from the foot of the hills the soil of the Atak is
poor and sandy. It is in many parts also saline and covered with salme