'Military Report on Persian Seistan' [‎6v] (17/188)

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Itud and the Farah Rud flowing from the north, and by the Helmand and
Khash, or KhushkRud, flowing from the south and east, respectively, ihese
two lakes or pools are connected by a thick reed-bed called the aizar,
which according to the amount of water that they contain is either a marsh
or cane-brake. In flood-time these two lakes, ordinarily distinct, unite
their waters, and the conjoint inundation pours over the Naizar into the
second great depression, known by the generic title of llamun, or Expanse,
which stretches southwards like a vast shallow trough for many miles.
When the British Commissioners were here in 1872 the llamun was quite
dry and they marched to and fro across its bed. But in 1885-b when some
members of the later Russo-Afghan Boundary Commission were proceed-
ing this way from Quetta to the confines of Herat, it was found to be an im
mense lake extending for miles, with the Kuh-i-Khwajah, a well-known
mountain and conspicuous landmark usually regarded as its western limit,
standing up like an island in the middle. In times of abnormal flood
the Hamun will itself overflow, and on such occasions the water draining
southwards through the Sarshela ravine inundates the third of the great
depressions to which I alluded and wdiich is known as the Zirreh Marsh.
This was said at the time of the Commission not to have occurred within
living memory, it being a far more common experience to find all the river
beds exhausted than all the lake-beds full; and the Zirreh, as a rule, pre
sents the familiar appearance of a salt desert. In 1885, however, a British
officer exploring Western Baluchistan found water two feet deep flowing
down the Sarshela, or Shela, and forming an extensive Hamun in the north
ern part of the Zirreh, which was said to be over one hundred miles in
circumference.” ^
The portion of country thus described is not all in Persian territory,
the two-fold lagoon (the Zirreh) being in Afghanistan.
In its general aspect Seistan is a plain country with a gently undulat
ing surface. Towards the hill ranges bounding it on the north-west and
south the ground rises and merges into the hill skirts, or, as on the east,
lies flat at the base of high cliffs of firm clay, wdiich form the limit of ele
vated desert tracts wffiere they abut upon the Seistan basin. Its soil is a
light, porous, and sandy alluvium and is remarkably fertile.
The minor features of this region are constantly changing with the
seasons,—with the variation of the humidity of different years, the result
is that the lakes are sometimes great expanses of water and again in other
years mere stretches of salt desert, vdiilst the streams may be broad
rivers, dry water-courses, or flow in different channels.
r Ihe south-east portion of the country is traversed by the lower course
of the Helmand. The river here flows nearly due north after passing the ❖
Band-i-Kamal-Khan; its stream in ordinary flood is between two and three
hundred yards wide. But the river-bed is very much wider, and, winding
from side to side, forms long reaches of coarse gravel pebbles and sand
bounded by high alluvial banks. In the river-bed are thick belts of tama
risk and willow jungle, and these often divide the stream into two or three
separate channels. In seasons of high flood, the river, it is said, fills its
wade bed from side to side, but this accumulation is gradual, and is gene
rally got rid of by evaporation and by dispersion over the Hamun.
The south-west border is traversed from north to south by the Sarshela,
a wide and deep gully that drains the llamun into the Zirreh depression.
Between the Helmand and the Sarshela is the wide plain of Seistan proper.
The whole surface of the Seistan plain is intersected by canals and water-