'GAZETTEER OF PERSIA. VOLUME I' [‎84r] (172/820)

DAR—DAE
151
efflorescence. Farther out it becomes more fertile. The fertile belt extends
from 4 or 5 to 16 and 20 miles, and is then lost in a sandy waste that
extends to the Caspian and Aral.
The Atak of Darreh Gaz belonged to Persia, and was ruled by the Persian
Governor of Darreh Gaz without interruption, and certainly was very strong
ly held since Lutf ’ Ali Khan built Lutfabad about the commencement of the
19th century. Previous to 1832 the Atak of Darreh Gaz, w<is, as were most
Q-j -^tie outlying provinces of Ivhorasan, more or less independent of Kajar
rule ; but in that year ’Abbas Mirza forced it to submit, and since then it
has, though very subject to Turkoman raids, formed a portion of Persia. In
1882, however, the Russian Governor of Askhabad proclaimed that all the
Sunni villages in the Atak belonged to Russia, and that they were not in
future to pay any revenue to the Persian Government; and, as a matter of
fact, this has been actually carried out. See Atak.
Mountains .— The principal peaks of the enclosing mountains are the
Zarrin Kuh, nor’-nor’-west of the chief village (about 6,000 feet) ; the
Kuh-i-Kuchan, standing isolated at the west end of the valley, about 4,000
feet ; Kuh-i-Asalmeh, west of the valley, standing far up on the north side
of the river; Kuh-i-Aleh Dagh, also the west, on the south side of the
river ; and the Kuh-i-Duz a little to the south of west. These last three
are not less than 8,000 feet in height. The lower hills and hill-skirts are of
soft marls, and shales weathered into easy slopes, the higher masses of
limestones and slates. There are no forest trees, and even the character
istic juniper is rarely seen; but the pasturage herbage is more luxuriant
on the southern face of the chain', and the ravines are well filled with
thickets of barberry, dwarf maple, and ether deciduous shrubs.
Darreh Gaz n'vcr—This river, also called the Duringar river, is the largest
of the streams flowing north from the Atak range. It rises in the junc
tion of the Elburz and Daman-i-Kuh between Darreh Gaz and Kuchan, and
drains the plateau noith-west of Kuchan, flews west through the glen of
Shuraq Durb Adam, and through a narrow defile enclosed by cliffs of
great height into the glen of Duringar, past the first Darreh Gaz villages,
and thence winding between rugged hills enters the basin of Darreh Gaz,
and traversing it in an easterly direction for 13 or 14 miles, bends north
to the Atak. Its whole course is about 80 miles, and where unreduced
by irrigation it has a depth of 2^ feet and ft width of 20 feet, about
16 miles from the darband or gap by which the Atak is gained ; its waste
waters are lost in the desert. If unreduced by numerous irrigation
channels, it would no doubt reach the hollows of the Tejen.
The principal routes from the Darreh Gaz valley are :—
(1) East to Merv across the desert, caravan route.
(2) East and south-east to Ab-i-Vard, Chehar Deh, and Sarakhs. A
caravan route. ^ *
(3) East to Kalat by Igdaliq. Practicable for mules. ’
(4) South to Meshed and Kuchan by the Allahu Akbar pass. Prac
ticable for mules.
(5) West and south-west by the Davand pass to Kuchan. Practic
able for mules and camels.