‘Persia – especially Seistan’ [‎90r] (178/949)

15
I did not find a satisfactory crossing for the bridge, but do not anticipate
any trouble in getting good founds in red clay or sandstone, not far below the
surface of the shingle. The catchment basin of the river, though long, is
narrow, so its floods are not heavy, and 800 feet of waterway is more than ample.
From the Nal somewhere near Kuragi, mile 360 , the line gradually ascends
over a stony plain. The surrounding country for the next 25 miles most
probably once formed a lake, into whose former bed various nullas have dug
their present channels, leaving scarps and terraces of red clay and conglomerate
to show its original level. Two of these scarps are crossed by the alignment,
the first about 8 miles from the Nal River, and the second near the Monro.
The latter is quite easy: the line would ascend along the face of the bluff in
light cutting. The former is much loftier and more troublesome. The align
ment there should not follow the Kuragi-Bela caravan road, along which
the section was taken, but strike the Pan jgur-Damb-Bela road, 4 miles to the
north, at the point where it tops the crest of the ridge. The bluff is 100 feet
lower here, and the descent by either of the routes shown dotted on plan, is
fairly straightforward, though the earthwork for 2 miles will be heavy. I made
a section of this alternative, but it is not worth submitting; the correct align
ment is so obvious.
The rest of the alignment, as fa£ as the Seetaro ascent (mile 385 , R. L.
1 , 400 ), is light line over dasht and glacis. Several fair-sized nullas have to be
bridged—the Kang, Larendara, Monro, Ara, and Seetaro—but the spans will be
short and the piers low. A few isolated ridges of Khojak shales can be
avoided.
The Seetaro ascent to the Jhau Lak plateau, though only 300 feet in height,
is a more troublesome and expensive bit
of development than the barometric sec
tion would lead one to suppose. The
lower portion is through a confused mass
of clay cliffs and ravines, finishing up at
the Kotal (R. L. 1 , 700 ) with a steep rise
of 100 feet The best alignment will he
found slightly to the right of the caravan
road, where a basin among the hills gives room for development almost up to
the top of the Kotal; the last J of a mile being on the face of the cliff and
crossing to the left of the road.
N.B. —Between Jliau and Las Bela, neither my
surveyor’s nor my barometer agrees with the levels on
the Trigonometrical Survey maps. Our barometers
agree fairly inter se, and all agree as to the actual
height of the Jhau Lak above the Bela plain. Daily
dust-torms and atmospheric disturbances all the
time we were here caused the discrepancy in reduced
level (above the sea). At Monro and Seetaro our
It. L. is 200 feet to > high, 300 feet at the Goko
plain,—mile 308 ,—and 400 feet at Las Bela.
The next 17 miles across the plateau present no difficulties. The road
winds in an open plain among high hills of soft sandstone and clay. There is
a good deal of small span bridging and some earthwork, but the correct align
ment is fairly obvious. The plain is occasionally earth and gravel, but more
often of layers of sandstone on edge, such as may be frequently seen near Sibi.
Lak-descent .—The descent from the plateau, R. L. 1 , 700 , to the Bela
plain, R. L. 700 , is the most difficult piece of the whole line. The caravan road
descends the face of a cliff, known as the Jhau Lak, into a sort of crater of
clay shale hills drained by a nulla running to the left under a sheer precipice.
No adhesion railway could possibly follow this route. I had been told this
beforehand, and so, while I was making the reconnaissance to Basni, I sent my
surveyor here to make a thorough examination of all possible routes. The
alignment now proposed was only discovered after a series of failures, when
he had almost despaired of success.
Subsequent detailed surveys will no doubt modify and improve it in many
ways, but the general route shown on the plan via the Sir Kaur Kotal, and .
down the valley of that river, for at least a considerable part of its course, is, in
my opinion, the only feasible route for the descent. Proceeding to derails, the
barometric section leaves the caravan road at the junction of the Kumbh and
Sir Kaur (west) nullas at mile 404 , about 4 | miles from the top of the
Jhau Lak, and f mile below the Kumbh camping ground (these details are
intended to assist future survey parties). Thence it turns abruptly to the left
up the Sir Kaur for three miles till the Sir Kaur Kotal is reached, where a ^
mile tunnel will be necessary through soft sandstone and clay. The permanent