'MILITARY REPORT ON PERSIA. VOL. IV, PART II.' [‎13v] (31/212)

14
Coastal Strip,
Districts of FJr.
district trhich forms a part of it. It consists of valleys,
seldom more than 5 miles wide, running roughly parallel to
each other in a north-west and south-east direction, separated
by barren mountain ranges some 3,000' in height. It is
sparsely populated, villages, in some parts, lying at a great
distance from one another; numerous ruins demonstrate
the existence in former times of a much larger sedentary
population ; the plains and valleys are sparsely wooded, the
only common tree being the kundr or jujube, but on the
higher hills there is a very large quantity of wood, small trees
as a rule, wild almonds, banak and kulkhung predominating.
Every village, however, small, has a patch of cultivation
round it, the intervening country being desert. Grazing is
usually excellent, but dry after May ; nomad tribes frequent
this tract from November to April, spending the re!?t of the
year in the sardslr.
The date palm flourishes everywhere even in the more
northerly districts; the fruit is but little exported, but forms
an important addition to the indigenous food supply. Kaza-
run represents about the most northerly point of cultiva
tion of the date palm along the main caravan routes.
Coastal Strip .—This is the flat alluvial tract lying between
the sea and the most southerly mountain ranges of Fars. It
generally level, partly alluvial and partly sandy, studded with
date palm plantations and very sparsely wooded with the kundr
bush. It has a relatively large population amounting in all to
some 100,000 persons, and includes the districts of Llravi, Halat
Baud, Rud Hilieh. Angali, Shabankareh, Zlra 7 , Mazarai,
Borazjun, Tangistan and Dashtl. This tract commences from
a point some 13 miles to the north of Bandar Dllam, where from
the sea to the coastal chain of mountains is only a distance of
15 miles, and stretches south for roughly 150 miles until the
southern border of Dashti is reached, where the coastal chain
again comes to within a few miles of sea. This plain in good
years produces large quantities of grain.
The following table gives the various districts into which
the province of I ars is divided with their approximate sedentary
populations and boundaries.