'Military Report on Persian Seistan' [‎8v] (21/188)

6
which is carried off by the Sarshela. Surgeon-Major Brazier-Creagh de
scribes it as being a broad sheet of water, covering the entire area indi
cated in his map and practically turning the country almost into an island,
except on the south-east, for 7 months of the year. In 1897 there was no
overflow into the Sarshela, and up to the 20th May the water had only
reached a little south of the Kuh-i-Khwajah. The limit of the 1896 flood
reached a line opposite Daulatabad, and in 1895 there is said to have been an
overflow into the Sarshela. The waters begin to subside in August, but
the process is very gradual, and the road from Nasratabad to Baring is not
practicable until November.
Between March and November the Ilamun is crossed on tutins, rafts
made of reeds. On the Helmand side and on the ferries on the Bud-i-
Parian, where the current is extremely rapid, broad rafts made of tamarisk
boughs, lashed together and supported by hollow pumpkins, are used, and
are propelled by swimmers who carry gourds round their necks to support
them in the water. On the north-west and west the reed boats are poled
along in shallow, smooth water, which varies in depth.
.On the Seistan side there is a broad stretch of clear water, beyond
which, on the Nihbandan side, is a wide belt of lofty reeds, rising ten feet
m height, and impenetrable by anything but an elephant. A deep fringe
of coarse grass surrounds the whole, and affords grazing to the flocks of
the nomads. In the bed of the Hamun are the ancient ruins of Aswar
Shah, Dargo Samur, and many others. The short, broad reeds of the
Naizar, with fronds like a palm, supply a coarse cattle fodder, the voum*
sprouts being grazed after burning.
The Gau7j-i-Zirah. This liamun, or depression, on the southerly con-
hnes of the lacustrine region of Seistan, in Afghan territory, is a wide
and circular depression sloping gently up to the bounding hills and desert
cliffs. As a rule the lowest portion of this hollow is merely a marsh, and
iftSrdes^icftion 011 ^ 1 ^ ^ alto ^ etlier ^ the Iake leavin g ^ saline deposit
On those occasions, however, when the Hamun-i-Seistan overflows, the
water carried off by the Sarshela is discharged into the Gaud-i-Zirah, con
verting its lower portion temporarily into a lake.
K 0 oJ he *5 nCien !w in8 W ¥ ch ® ta , lld Upon the lower slo P es of the depression
bear evidence that a vast period must have elapsed since the Hamun con
tained a lake of large extent.
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