‘Persia – especially Seistan’ [‎75v] (149/949)

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and thence to our future system at Kandahar. At, and above, Landi TFali
Muhammad the inhabitants are Pathans, and the country is, I am told, well
tilled and productive.
Prom Wali Muhammad downwards the railway would probably have to
turn the southern flank of the Koh-i-Khan Kashin (with a wide detour to
avoid steep gradients), as a line along the northern edge of the mountain
overlooking the river would, according to Mr. Ward, be very costly, with
deep cuttings and lofty viaducts. At a point near Deshu the line woufd again
enter the Helmand valley.
Thenceforth its course would be through a perfectly level Khadir; the
only works would be a few bridges over irrigation channels,'and the alignment
calls for no further remark till we approach its northern bend near Bund-i-
Kamal Khan. There, if our objective be Sabzawar and Herat, it may be
desirable to cross the river (a comparatively simple job), and descend the
right hand Khadir. Otherwise the line should remain on the left bank. There
is, however, no longer any Khadir on that side beyond Bund-i-Kamal Khan,
as the stream adheres to the southern bluffs, and the railway must ascend
on to the highland, or dasht, which will entail a little earthwork and minor
bridging for a few miles. Further on, near Dikdela, a slight detour will be
necessary to avoid some bluffs on both sides of an old channel of the Helmand.
I may add that after reaching Khwaja Ali, where we met our Afghan escort,
I thought it better to discontinue the barometric section, as there were
sowars at every one’s elbow, and it was no longer wanted.
The valley of the Helmand from the Koh-i-Khan Kashin to Kala Path,
where it begins to expand into a delta before entering the Hamun or lake, may
be briefly described as a narrow alluvial plain, about two miles wide, bounded
on both sides by clay scarps and the desert. This line of bluffs varies from
3p0 feet in height, near Deshu, to 100 feet, near the delta. Its formation is
either lacustrine or fluviatile, debris and silt brought down by the river, through
which the present channel has been cut; I am inclined to believe the latter.
The Khadir between the bluffs, though fertile, is but thinly populated by
indolent Baluchis, and only partially cultivated by means of small irrigation
channels leading from the river, which flows at a level some 15 feet below that
of the tilled land. Its average fall is three feet per mile.
The country is known as the Garmser, or hot country,—its general elevation
is about 1,800 feet above the sea level. Huge mud ruins, said to be Persian,
and remains of bricks, tiles, and pottery, testify to its ancient populousness and
fertility.
I estimate its present total production, in good seasons, at about 5,000 tens
of wheat and barley, and an infinitesimal quantity of pulse and cotton.
Trees cannot live owing to the frightful simoom that blows up the valley
all through the hot months. Vegetables appear to be unknown, the inhabit-
* Note .—Subsequently confirmed by Mr. Ward’s ants eating, instead, the raw blades of
report on acreage under cultivation above Bund-i- VOUng wheat.* The fore^oin^ estimnte
Seistan (vide Appendix). i S iittie better than a gUO^S, but I don’t
think that it is much under the mark. It is based on a rough calculation
of the area of the growing wheat crop. On the occasion of our visit, the
country was suffering from a double famine; our Afghan escort following
on a season of drought, when for the first time, in a period of seventv vears the
flow of the Helmand had entirely dried up.
In normal seasons the bulk of the crop is available for export; some of it
reaches Quetta and Kushki, or goes to Jalk and Panjgur in exchange for dates •
the balance is bartered with the nomad tribes of the desert in exchange for
ghi, wool, and livestock. The surplus from a bumper crop is often valueless
owing to the isolation of the country, but with improved means of communic
ation a considerable impetus to cultivation would ensue—always within the
limits, it should be remembered, of the culturable area, which cannot exceed
100 x 2 , or 200 square miles, and is not probably half this; less in size in fact
than an ordinary Indian Tahsil.
At the terminus, however, is Seistan, and here we find an industrious
population and a considerable extent of cultivation.