'GAZETTEER OF PERSIA. VOLUME I' [‎150v] (307/820)

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KAI—KAI
N
KAlN (No. 1) (District)—
The Kaln district includes the whole of the south-east corner of Kho-
rasan, extending from south of Khaf to the border of Sistan, and from
the crest of the Tun range to the Afghan border, or a length of about 300
miles by 150, the southern part, however, sloping off from about the 300th
mile to Sistan. The country of Kain is entirely mountainous, but be
tween its hill ranges it supports a number of wild plateaux and fertile
valleys, that mostly trend from north-west to south-east, and rarge in
elevation from 4,000 to 7,000 feet above the sea.
The principal products of the province of Kain are wheat, saffron^ carpets,
a cloth called barak, unmanufactured silk, nuts of all sorts, dried fruits,
almonds, and a small quantity of cotton. _
The Kain district consists of ten buluks, or divisions, each of which
contains from 20 to 30 villages and a great number of mazraeh, or hamlets.
The inhabitants of Kain are of various races and tribes, both of Arab and
Persian descent, with an admixture of Afghans and Baluchis. The population
is probably not less than 80,000 sonh.—{Goldsmid ; Bellew ; MacGregor.)
The Kain district is traversed from north to south by two main ranges, one,
commencing from Kakh, passes down the centre
Geography. ^ the country separating Nimbuluk, Kain,
and Sunnikhaneh from Alghur and N< harjan, and forming the watershed
between the low ground of theDasht-i-Lut on the west and the Namaksar
and Dasht-i-Nam di on the east. The range is from 6,000 to 8,000 feet
above sea-level. The other range, commencing from the Kuh-i-Khaibar,
is called the Ahangaran ; its highest peaks are 9,500 feet. Kis ng steep
and rugged from the plain of Isfideh on its western side, it slopes more
gradually towards Afghanistan, and contains a number of villages on
the eastern side, which nestle close up under the brow of the mountain
forming the buliik of Zirkuh. There is a good supply of water from
springs in the mountains, but, below, the nature of the soil and the lie of
the land do not admit of the construction of kdrizes, which would bring the
water out on to the plain that forms a prolongation of the Dasht-i-Namadi,
The Ahangaran range, therefore, practically forms the eastern limit of
Birjand, though its actual limit extends over an
Dasht-i-Nama . uninhabited and nearly waterless tract to beyond
Yazdan. This tract is, however, not a bare, sandy desert; camels would
find grazing anywhere, and within a few miles of the Ahangaran range
vegetation is more abundant than on the Persian side, and the scrub is
thick and high.
These two main ranges are united by a continuous chain of hills, passing
from the village of Ahangaran to the north of Durukhsh, and about
20 miles broad, forming the bidiik of Shakhin, and separating the plain
of Isfideh from that of Sunnikhaneh.
North of Kain, which lies among the hills, and beyond Buzinabad, is
a barren and little inhabited tract cut off from Nimbuluk by an arm of
the Kakh range. West again of Nimbuluk comes the border of Tabas,
and south of that another barren tract of country, bordering on the
Dasht-i-Lut and containing a salt basin some miles in length, called the
Kavir-i-Muhammadabad. This is the limit to Birjand to the west of