'GAZETTEER OF PERSIA. VOL. III. PART I: A to K' [‎364v] (733/1278)

road from Shushtar to all places east of it. At the Pul-i-Bulaiti the water
is forced into tunnels in the precipitous rock, which conduct it through a
number of flour mills built in the honeycombed rock side of the channel a
little farther down. Below this dam the rock of the banks yields to earth,
but the sides continue to be nearly 100 feet in height till the end of Shushtar
town is reached. Half a mile below the Pul-i-BulaitI a natural ledge of rocks
crosses the channel, with an opening in it only 20 yards wide but passable
for native river boats. The stream then splits into three or four small
but navigable channels, and so continues to a point 5 miles lower down,
where the river-bed is again nearly traversed, by another barrier, partly
natural, partly artificial, by which the course of the stream is considerably
deflected to the east and made to form an acute angle ; this place is called
Mahi-Bazan or Bazaniat, meaning in the Shushtari patois “ a place where
fish play,” from the numbers of fish which come there to spawn and are
caught. On the right bank 7 or 8 miles below Shushtar is the important
landing place of Shalaill, above which there is not, for practical purposes,
any navigation, either native or European. From Mahibazan to a short
■distance above Band-i-Qir the Gargar meanders through low ground several
hundred yards broad, enclosed up on either side by steep clay banks from 40
to 50 feet high, with which the river in its windings from time to time comes
in contact. As Band-i-Qir is approached the high banks close in upon
the river and show remains of brick buildings, vestiges of the ancient city of
’Askar Mukaram ; parts of these are sunk as much as 10 and even 20 feet
below the present surface of the ground. At Band-i-Qir the banks do not
ordinarily rise more than 18 feet above the river in its lowest season ; and
in the high season, during floods, they are frequently overflowed. The
width of the Gargar varies from 50 to nearly 100 yards, and at Band-i-Qir
it is about 60.
The flood discharge of the Gargar is about 7,000 cubic feet a second,
but in March 1905 the discharge at Band-i- Qir was only about 2,000. Owing
to the height of the bank the river does not lend itself naturally to purposes of
irrigation, but in some places there are small inundation canals watering low-
lying lands. The silt of the Gargar at its maximum is only about one-
e’ghtieth of its volume.
The navigation of the Gargar is difficult chiefly on account of the sinu-
nsities and the narrowness, in places, of the channel, of which the breadth
varies from 20 to 40 yards ; with a low river obstacles in the shape of stones,
sand-spits and tree stumps are super-added. The Shushan which runs
from Ahwaz to Shalaili at all seasons of the year, is a stern-wheeler, 100
feet in length over all, with a beam of 23 feet, and draws 3 feet of water,
when carrying 30 tons of cargo ; her barge, 65£ feet by 15| feet, carrying
50 tons of cargo on a mean draught of 3 feet, can only be used in a good
river. A longer vessel could not negotiate some of the turns, and an ordi
nary paddle-steamer would find some of the channels too narrow. The
average depth of the Gargar in the low season is from 6 to 4£ feet, but the
channels are subject to perpetual alteration in consequence, chiefly, of
sandbars, which are thrown across the river by small tributaries during
the last freshets of spring. These the reduced river of the summer season
is unable to wash away, and they often give soundings Measurements of the depth of a body of water. , of as little as 2|