'Report on the Preliminary Survey of the Route for the Central Persia Telegraph Line' [‎119v] (243/300)

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not cut up. At 5 miles, the track enters a nullah, and practically follows its
course to Gurg. The old ruined burnt brick caravanserai A roadside inn providing accommodation for caravans (groups of travellers). of Hob it is passed
at 6T0 miles, 50 yards to the right. Here, there is also a deep well, which is
dry. The road bifurcates at O'So miles, the left hand one, bearing 185°, going
to Regan, via Mazerab, while we keep to the main road, bearing 190°. Sand
drifts begin at 10 90 miles, and at 12*60 are thick and across the road. lhe<se
drifts finish on the right at 13*50 miles, and gradually recede on the left, and
stop on that side at 15 miles. A very low gravelly sandy range of hills, which
started at 5 miles, and about 3 miles to our right, has been gradually approach
ing and at 15 miles is only half a mile distant, while at 17‘40 miles we swing
round its end. We now turn to the south-west and, passing over a gravelly
firm road, reach Gurg. On our left, we have good grazing and tamarisk trees,
and several old dry Kanats, the relics of a once inhabited place. The water at
Gurg has to be dug for and is quite undrinkable for man. Road open to
wheels.
Gurg to Camp. (Near Mil Nadari.)
Date.
No. of
March.
Route.
Intermediate
Miles.
Total
Miles.
5th February 1899
7
Camp, 1,800 feet.
19*98
132 99
Leaving the little oasis of Gurg, the only green spot in this appalling
waste, we continued in a south-westerly direction over a good road, with hard
pebbly desert to onr right and the tamarisk Meerzand palms of Gurg on our left
till 1*80 miles, when we cross the Gurg river of briny water, some 20 feet by 6
inches, flowing west towards Zangi Ahmed. This, my guide informed me, was
not the Rood Mahee, but a stream which rises further north. At 2 20 miles,
all growth stopped on our left, and desert, nothing but sandy desert, as bare as
the palm of one’s hand, stretched on all sides. The going was excellent, fit for
wheels of all sorts, though monotonous, oh ! so painfully monotonous. At the
9th mile, there was a sudden depression, and we kept on this lower ground till
the ruins of a mud caravanserai A roadside inn providing accommodation for caravans (groups of travellers). were reached at 12 miles. Near here, the
country appears to he liable to inundation. My aneroid shows 28*45,1,400 feet.
From the 13th mile, we make a gentle rise, and reach a crest at 14*30 miles,
and at 11*50 a low mound or rather sand-hill is passed, 50 yards to the left, a not
over conspicuous, but the only, land mark in view. At the 15th mile, we again
dip into a depression, and continue over broken undulating ground to our camp,
which is some 400 yards to the right, near a tiny patch of camel grazing and a
little short of the ruins of Mil-i-Nadiri. The heat during the middle of the day
was trying, and one trembles to think what it must be in mid-summer. We
are said to be camped near the site of the city of Lut, which, tradition says,
the Almighty turned upside down and buried its wicked and immoral
inhabitants.
Camp to Shur Gez.
Date.
No. of
March.
Route.
Intermediate
Miles.
Total
Miles.
6 th February 1S99
8
Shur Gez.
12 07
145*06
At a very early hour, we had started on our way through the sand drifts
to Shur Gez. Still keeping our former direction of south-east, we passed the
ruins of Mil-i-Nadiri at 1*50 miles, 10 yards to our right. Absolute bare, hard,