Manuscript of Persia and the Persian Question (Continued) [‎49r] (97/690)

yyi/f ■ f$'
^IjDAVKO TTinM I lilIA H Y flM Him HART?W UHiLltr
46-
J-
nising the results lhat might be expected from a proper fertilization
of the fields outside the town, ordered the erection of the great bun^
across the river, in order to hold up its waters, and the excavation
of the tunnel and MinaV Canal leading therefrom, in order to carry-
off a different portion of the waters so collected for irrigation pur-
poses. Before long, however, the river, scouring a soft and friable
bed, deepened its channel and ceased to fill the canal, a process which
would be accelerated, if^s is probable, the bund had also broken
down. It was. at this critical juncture that we may assume the
engineering ability of the Roman prisoner to have been invoked in
order to redress the evil, and the series of waterworks which have
made both the place and its founders famous, to have been initiated
m their entirety. Realising the difficulty of repairing the bund and
of adequately controlling the often swollen torrent of the Karun, as
long as there remained no other exit for its superfluous waters, the
monarch or the engineer ordered the excavation of the GjjrgAr Canal
through the rock on the eastern side of the town. No sooner was
the cutting finished than the entire volume of the Karun rushed
through it, entirely deserting the old river bed, a fact which I regard
as established by two considerations. At some distance below the
G k r g*r\him<Lw}Krf$re the existing water-mills, is another artificial
remains of numerous disused water-mills at
_ ^ present level of the canal that it is obvious
_ ave ^ eGn placed there when the canal occupied a much
'el. Further, throughout the entire course of the Gjtrg^r
jL er to Bunc^-i-Kir, whilst the canal at present occupies a
bed of from-eisty to seW&ty yards in width with steep banks,
visible at distances varying from a few yards to half a mile
0 1Tl1 “"^fothers and higher banks, now standing up like
the plain, but unmistakably indicating a time when
the confines of a much larger and more powerful
rm ‘ e
^vi»g thus been emptied inf the G^rg^r Canal, the
_ !miilt-%»~or, if no previous operations be attributed to
was now, along with the tunnel, constructed for the first
time. Simultaneously the opportunity was seized for raising and
paving the river bed below the castle rock, in order to prevent any
further detrition of the bottom. These undertakings being com
pleted, and the system of irrigation which, according to my
hypothesis, was their main, if not their sole raison d’ttre, being
available for aetaen, orders were now given partially to dam the
G^rg^r Canal, so^as to turn back the Karun into its original bed.
At this stage thetyfe wer^ constructed the various bunds that obstruct
the course of the Gfrg^f, whose diminished contents naturally
receded from the broad channel which they had hitherto occupied,