Manuscript of Persia and the Persian Question (Continued) [‎40r] (79/690)

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freshet, and arrested in its descent by the rocky ledges; but such as
were not thus employed gathered in a crowd to witness the departure
of the Susa. We bought some fowls and a sheep’s joint in the
bazaar; but it was not till long after noon that we were under weigh,
The villagers of Ahwaz were mostly engaged in collecting the
driftwood that had been brought down the river by the recent
freshet, and arrested in its descent by the rocky ledges; but such as
and had definitely entered upon the journey to Shuster. As the A
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hours wore on, however, and against a current running less than
•feur- miles an hour^ the Susa appeared unable to achieve a higher
rate of progress than about two and a half miles—a speed which
enabled the villagers in the river-side camps to keep pace with us
by slowly walking along the bankf—I began to think that the victory
over the Mirza and the loan of the Susa had been somewhat dearly *
purchased. ""Tho Su&g is n G'cmuii-buill boat, designed originally-as
ienrler tn lhr> t>iA wnlifnry -iroaoQl in nyitir^
romplemont of the nnvy nf the hdng of Kings. She was brought
out hi pieooo from llromon in 1^>S5, and was put together bythe
nrtilioero of tho P&wpofa'} in the Poroian Gulf,^ and armed with a
singlo £-moh K^wipp gnn, thara being at that time no idea of using
iter for morchandioe-. In 1889, after the Karun concession had been
granted,^nhn this taken by an English captain to Ahwaz, and towed /
by Persians up the rapids; since which time she ha4!remained on
the upper river, under the orders of the Nizam-es-Sultaneh, nomin- ^
ally for purposes of trade, but in reality serving no other purpose a.^
than to carry him up and down the river. Her draught of water is f
too great to allow of her being much used as a cargo boat, except when
the water is high. She was piloted and steered by Arabs; but her
engineer, a Turk from Bagdad, had never been on the upper river ^
before, and vindicated his ignorance by a series of assurances that
would have excited the jealous envy of the Mirza. I was to be
landed without fail at Shuler at noon on the day after we had A 4
weighed anchor from Ahwaz.
Above Ahwaz the Karun is confined within lofty banks, varying
from ten to twenty, and even thirty feet in height, with vertical profile
of marl, and a bed of from two hundred - to three hundred~Hnd~ fifty 2 t ^ ^
.yards in width. Water for irrigation is drawn up from pools hollowed
in the river bank, by means of leather skins and a pulley worked by
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