'Collection of journals and reports received from Captain the Hon G C Napier, Bengal Staff Corps, on special duty in Persia, 1874. Includes revised index. London: HMSO, 1876' [‎12r] (27/409)

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No. 2 .
Diary kept during Tour in Khorassan.
No. 14, dated Teheran, 4th January 1875.
From Captain the Hon. G. C. Napier, on Special Duty in
Persia, to C. U. Aitchison, Esq., C.S.I., Secretary to
the Government of India, Foreign Department.
I HAVE the honor to submit herewith a diary kept during my
tour in Khorassan, in accordance with instructions received from
you; also a diary kept at my request by Kazee Syud Ahmed,
whom I had sent alone to Asterabad to await my arrival. The
fact of his not being known to be a British servant gave him
better opportunities of obtaining useful information than he would
have had in my company.
2nd July. Received final instructions from His Excellency the
British Minister, and sent camp on to Jajarood, the first stage on
the road to Mashad.
3rd July. Gulakek to Kammer, 23 miles .—From Teheran or
Gulahek there is, besides the route skirting the mountains usually
taken by troops and caravans for Shahrood and Mashad, an
alternative route running parallel to it, but considerably more to
the north. This is said to be a rough and difficult road, but
maintaining as it does a much higher level is preferable in
summer.
Starting from Teheran or Gulahek, the summer quarters of The Shemira-
the British Legation, a village path leads across the lower nat -
undulations of the Alburz mountains, a fertile tract known as
Shemiranat. There was still snow on the mountains, and many
copious streams traversed the plain. The most striking feature
of this tract is the marked contrast between the land within and
out of reach of water. A space of a few feet only intervenes
between the most luxuriant vegetation, an undergrowth of rank
grass, clover, vetches, forest trees, and trees laden with fruit, and
a barren, hard, dry soil, bearing only a scanty crop of thistles.
This contrast lends to the gardens and hamlets scattered over the
hill skirts half their beauty, or rather half their charm. At a
distance of 16 miles is the hamlet of Surkh-hissar, distant from
Teheran 12 miles. Thence there are two roads, one due east,
crossing the Jajarood stream by a ford: the other bending north
east over the spur dividing the Shemiranat from the Jajarood
valley. There is an easy ascent of 700 feet in 4| miles, and a Jajarood.
steep descent of 800 feet in 2 miles to the stream, which is
spanned by a solid stone bridge of four arches, beyond which is
a causeway of a few feet in width crossing the flood bed. Three
miles below the bridge is a shooting lodge of the Shah’s, below
that point the stream divides into numerous channels, and shortly
distributes its waters into the canals of the neighbouring portion
of the plain of Verameen. From the bridge the route passes east