Manuscript of Persia and the Persian Question (Continued) [‎35r] (69/690)

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before the Society of Arts General Schindler mentioned a local
legend, which attributed the disaster to the wicked machinations of
a mediaeval sugar merchant, who cornered the market; but after a
time, when the price had risen and he opened his bags, found them
full, not of sugar, but of scorpions, whose tails were so sharp that
they cut a thick felt carpet in two. Such myriads of these scorpions
came out that the people fled, and have never returned^
It is the two-fold rapid racing through the gaps left by the
destruction of the bund that has ever since constituted the main
obstacle to the continuous navigation of the Karun. The main
channel is the aperture between the right bank, which is steep and
lofty, and the first rocky islet in the current, the passage varying
from fifty to eighty yards in width according to the condition of the
water, and there being an approximate fall of three feet in a distance
of fifty yards. Between the islets and the main section cf the sand
stone ledge which dams the rest of the stream, is a second and
narrower rapid. Through both these gateways there was a swift
and noisy rush of water—I can hardly call it a cataract, for it was
not comparable to the headlong sweep of the Great Bab at the First
Cataract of the Nile. It was by the larger or western channel that
1 lif iitanwwi Felby took up the Assyria, with Sir II. Layard on board,
in March, 1842. She was a paddle-wheel steamer, one-lmndrcd feet /dC
long. They passed the lower rapids without difficulty, the river
being full and the ledges completely concealed. Twice did Selby
attempt to force the main rapid by steam alone, but the force of the
current, running at the rate of -fi-ve- to -five micha qnai ter miles an S
hour, turned the Assyria completely round, and he was compelled to
resort to more powerful means. Putting out a strong hawser or tow-
line to the shore, and ordering the engines to be worked at full speed
while the crew hauled upon the hawser, he again turned the ship’s
head towards the gap. For a few moments she stood trembling but
motionless, and then slowly forged ahead, until presently, within
less than half an hour from the first unsuccessful attempt, she was
moored in the tranquil waters the town 5 * - On her return journey,
a short time afterwards, the Assyria “ shot through the opening like
an arrow.” It was through the same gate that the Susa, the small
launch in which I ascended the upper river, was towed up earlier in
1889, and here, too, the Shush an will presently-require to-pass. I
do not myself think that, in a favourable state of the water, there
need be the slightest risk in the" operatirm. The configuration of
the river banks and rocks in mid stream is convenient for the pur
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SnA finally a stern-rope, to keephor- rounl. -U+--
.manipulated from the rocks on cither side oftficTgftpi^ I even think
that the conditions are not infrequent when engines of reasonable
horse-power would suffice to take up a vessel alone.
The fifth and final set of rapids are about half a mile higher up
the stream, and a little above the village of Ahwaz. They are
formed by a low double ridge of rock projecting like a hump across
the river, and pierced by two channels in low water, but forming
rapids when the river is full. Above them the Karun resumes its
placid surface, and no further obstacle to navigation occurs till
within a few miles of Shuler. The entire length throughout which
the river is broken up by rocks and rapids is from to 1 £ miles.
Sharks of some size frequently come up to Ahwaz, and are seen
swimming in the pools below the rapids. They even penetrate as
far as Shusfer. oc iZljl f, ^
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