'GAZETTEER OF PERSIA. VOLUME I' [‎100v] (205/820)

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total descent from 8,000 to 10,000. The Persian guns were dragged
by hand all through the pass. The road over the Khush Yailaq
mountain would, in ordinary winters, be closed for two or three months.
The next pass in succession is that by Nardin and hiaudeh. This, though
little used, is shorter and easier, and oilers facilities for the construction
of a railway only exceeded by those of the more circuitous route to the east
by the Gurgan defile. The main chain is, for some 20 miles, from the
Kuh-i-Buhar to Nardin, broken into low, disconnected ridges, between
which intervene wide expanses of ravine-cleft pasture lands. Beyond
Nardin the ridge rises again and continues in an unbroken line westward.
Trap rock predominates in the geological formation, and the rich soil thus
afforded supports a more than ordinarily luxuriant vegetation.
From Nardin northward to the Atrak, the only pass said to be passable for
guns is that over the Qalpush plain, and thence over the high spurs of the
Kurkhud mountain into the valley of the Garma Khan, crossing the
stream at Chehil Guzar; but any line crossing the whole of the Atrak
tributaries must necessarily be a difficult one.
Buinurd, Nishapur, and Meshed may be reached by the old highway ot_
Shahabad,’ which runs up the Gurgan stream to Gurgan, through the
defile Chunda ’Abbas, Robat-i-Karabil, Robat-i-Tshq,_ and Shaughan ;
thence to Bujnurd by the pass of Firuzeh, and to Nishapur through the
Darband-i-Hisar and the Juvain plain. .
The upper part of the Gurgan valley is narrow, but the road good and
gradients very easy, for the ascent in 18 to 20 miles cannot be above 2,000
to 2 500 feet. The defile of Gnrgan had once a good road through it and
beyond to the open plateau, which was said to be (in 1874) passable for
horsemen in spite of a dense growth of forest. The plateau_x undulate
very easily, and have a width of several miles. The Bujnurd pass is
difficult, but that of the Darband-i-Hisar exceedingly easy. The route
keens throughout so ‘ low that no great inconvenience could ever be
experienced from snow in the winter. For a railway to the east no better
line could be selected. Yr r- on'/i
From Kuchan to the Atak there are two passes—one by Ughaz, said
to be very easy, and the other by the Davand pass, a line nearly as good
as that by Naudeh, but attaining a greater elevation, and _ consequently
more liable to be closed in winter; that portion of it also lying across the
high plateau is much exposed.
From Kuchan east there are no passes that can be considered practicable
for wheeled carriages, or that could be rendered so with any amount of
labour at short notice. _ . •
With the Nardin or Naudeh and the Gurgan pass held, a force marching
eastward from the sea would be compelled to make a march of some days
northward from the Atrak through a waterless country to turn the Atak
chain, and thence to march 355 miles through a country produemg hw.y
enough to support the present nomadic population to Akdarband
whence the country south and east for a great distance is uninhabited
insufficiently watered, and very rough. The detour would add m
materially to the distance to be traversed, and would double the difficulties-
of supplies and communication. - -