'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' [‎41v] (86/409)

70
Feelings of
rural popula
tion towards
Russia.
Aladagh.
showed me in what light a visit from me as their guest would
have been considered. As a guest of the Persians, and through
their assistance and mediation I might have gone, or as a traveller,
not known to be a Government officer and on the business of
Government.
18th November. To Shoughan .—Marched to Shoughan on the
road to Jah Jerm and Bostam, a village of 100 houses of Shah-
dilloo Koords, with large gardens and a great extent of unirrigated
wheat lands giving good crops. This year the harvest was excep
tionally good, and consequently wheat is selling at seven maunds
per kran * In the worst year of the late famine the unirrigated
lands gave a crop sufficient to maintain the population and a good
many of the famine-stricken inhabitants of the less fertile valleys
to the south.
For the last two or three years also, though situated within a
few miles of the passes through which the Turkoman “ Allamans ”
constantly pass, the village has enjoyed a certain amount of immunity
from plunder. The people attribute this partly to the good ar
rangements of the Khan, but chiefly to the fact that the Russians
have kept the Tekkahand Yemoot tribes employed in other direc
tions. They are full of gratitude to the latter, and declare that they
would be glad to see them come and complete the good work by
taking the country. This is a sentiment I have heard expressed
in various places on the border, and is natural enough. There
can be no doubt that the rural population everywhere would
welcome a strong government without respect to creed or race.
From the Bujnoord plain the road crosses a low pass, and thence
bends from south to west between two grand masses of mountains
connected by a low narrow ridge over which it also passes. The
mountain to the right or north is known as the Aladagh or the
“ piebald mountain,” a name very commonly applied to mountains
high enough to retain patches of snow late into the summer. The
southern mountain is as high as, and a greater mass than, Aladagh.
The north face for about 1,800 feet was thickly covered with fresh
fallen snow, and is well clothed with juniper of fair growth. To
the east of the peak and about 16 miles south of Bujnoord is a
deep cleft, with precipitous sides rising to 1,500 feet above the
valley known as the Siahkhana, through which lies the direct road
to the Isferayin valley, and thence to the Jouven and Nishapoor
plains. To the east of the pass again the ridge falls away, and is
crossed by a second and easier pass six or eight miles from the
Siahkhana. Thence it rises again joining the high range in which
lie the plateaux, Buguiri, and Sultan Maidan. The principal peaks,
Shahjehan and^Takht-i-mirza reach an elevation of 7,000 to 8,000
feet. Bending from south to south-east beyond Koochan this
range runs past Mashad through Bakharz towards Herat.
Leaving the baggage to follow the easy road over the low ridge
connecting the twn mountains, I ascended the peak of Aladagh
known as Baba Buland. The ascent was steep and difficult, the
Equal to about 42 lbs.