'Military Report on Persian Seistan' [‎62r] (128/188)

V
Gr
GABM —&ee GAURI.
GALI CHAH—
A stage on the Neh-i-Kuh-Malik Jiah direct road vid the Palang Kuh j it
is 10 to 12 miles north-west of Girdi-Chah. There is water, camel-grazing
and firewood close at hand— (Benn.)
GAND—
A village of 130 houses, 8 cattle, 100 donkeys.— (H. D. Napier.)
GANDA BaKHSH—
A village on the Ziri-i-Kuh Canal, possessing 6 ploughs of arable land.
Government revenue 72 kharwars of grain.— {Ahmad Din.)
GANDA-RIG—
A village.
GARDANRIG—
A crossing over the Shela, seven miles from Aumbad-sar-i-Shela.— {C. E.
7ate..)
GAURI—
A village of 40 houses inhabited by the Shariki tribe on the Shehraki Canal,
possessing 15 ploughs of cultivable land. Government revenue 180 kharwars
of grain. The village own, 14 cattle.— {H. D. Napier, Ahmad Din.)
GINA—
A ruined fort seven miles east of Burri wells; their are pools of water here
after rain, which, however, quickly dry up.— (C. E. Yate).
GIRDI-CHAH—
A thana of four rooms surrounded by a 10' wall, with a tower at each
corner; it was completed in 1900. There is a well of brackish water. It
is one of the stages between Robat and Nasratabad.
GOD-I-Z1RREH —
The above is the proper spelling, God, or Gaud, meaning hollow, and
Zirreh, lower ; the word is pronounced Zareh locally..
It, is a large depression in Afghan territory, receiving the drainage from
all sides, and more especially the overflow of the Helmand Hamun, by the
Shela river.
From Gumbad-i-Sar-i-Zirreh, where the Shela may be said to end and the
Zirreh to begin, it is thus described by C. E. Yate
Following down the course of the Shela the banks gradually got lower and lower till
they disappeared altogether. At about 6 miles out the tamarisk jungle ceased, and we
came to an open plain forming the bed of the lake, covered with white saline efflorescence.
This was covered every here and there with dead tamarisk trees, which had been killed by
floods. In these were numerous nests of some sort of divei formed of sticks and reeds,
about eighteen inches in depth, and the same in width, and firmly fixed in a fork of the
branches at a height of about four to five feet from the ground. Our guide told us that
he came here with other Baluchis the year before last in the breeding season and caught
and ate the young birds, of which there must have been thousands, to judge by the num
ber of nests. Now the water has so much dried up that the birds have gone elsewhere.
At about the 7th mile the signs of reed beds ceased and two miles further on we came
to the edge of the water which we had to approach on foot, as the horses’ hoofs sank deep
in the soft soil. This soil is not salt as it looks, and the cover of saline matter on the top
is of the thinnest, just sufficient to give it a glare. The soil in reality is perfectly cultiv
able, and could the water flowing into Gand-i-Zarih only be controlled, a great part of the
bed of the lake might be reclaimed and would form a most fertile area. The water we
found to be beautifully clear and only slightly salt, not nearly so salt as the guides bad led
us to believe it was.
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