‘Persia – especially Seistan’ [‎125r] (248/949)

I carefully examined the sky line made by the nearly vertical sides of
the southern bank of the Helmand gorge from Bagat above Koh-i-Khan
Nashin to Band-i-Kamal Khan and found only one break in that line. It was
at a point 6 miles below Deshu and was a mile wude and conspicuous. It is
just where a study of the shading on the maps would lead one to expect that
the old river w^ould have gone. I went up the depression to a distance of
10 miles from the river and found with an Abney’s level that it rose about
50 feet a mile and went off in a south-easterly direction and showed no signs
of turning towards the Gaud-i- Zirreh. I therefore returned to the river valley
to inspect the canals. The aneroid surveys made by Mr. Johns and the
surveys by Mr. Tate that were brought into Khwaja Ali also showed that this
depression did not go towards the Gaud-i-Zirreh. Messrs. Johns and Tate sent
out surveyors to collect more information which I saw as it was brought in,
and had opportunity to further investigate had I thought it necessary. Mr.
Johns, who went himself across to the Gaud-i-Zirreh, has summed up the
information in a very clear note with which I agree and I consider that there
is no feasible line for an escape from the Helmand to the Gaud-i-Zirreh above
Band-i-Kamal Khan.
Appendix “ D
Note* by Mr. W. A. Johns, Executive Engineer, dated 20th March 1903 , on investigations
* Note .—This is a compilation of 2 separate notes made to ascertain the possibility of irri-
made by Mr. Johns. gating the country round Tarakun from
A. H. McMahon. Helmand River and of diverting the
Helmand River into the Gaud-i-Zirreh.
I enclose two sectionsf taken with the usual dumpy level and a
+ P, ans Nos. VII and VIII. plant with the accompanying explanatory
j Appendix. C. note :
The extraordinarily lucky rains of the 9th and 10th enabled my parties to
spend four or five nights in the dasht, so w r e could do more than ever I
expected.
2. Section I commences from the water level of the present cultivators’
channel about 2 miles east of Killa Afzal, and runs down the nulia as shown
on the plan for some 34 miles terminating on the edge of the Gaud-i-Zirreh.
You will observe that the watershed The boundary between adjacent drainage basins. to the Gaud-i-Zirreh is within a mile
of the edge of the bank of this old branch of the Helmand, and that to get the
w r ater from the existing channel into the nulla and thence to the Gaud-i-Zirreh
requires only a ten-foot cutting some four miles long. I apologise for noticing
the obvious corollary that to turn the whole or part of the water of the Helmand
§ See paragraph is of Appendix e. down this nulla into the Gaud-i-Zirreh is a
t. k. J. wabd. remarkably simple§ engineering feat.
There can he little doubt that a branch of the Helmand once took this
course. The scarp all along the left bank of the nulla is sufficiently clear
evidence of this fact.
3. 1 draw your attention to the information shown on the section that,
on the dasht, f mile from the old river
For a section of this canal see plan No. v . hank, the section crosses an ancient Cflnal
of considerably greater dimensions than those one sees generally on the
Helmand. I estimate that it cannot have been smaller than the Meean Meer
canal. This is called by the natives the
“ Tarakun canal ”. Nearer Killa Afzal all
traces || of it are lost. It will be seen that
the level of the dasht at this point is only
10' above^f that of the water channel in
the Khadir. The canal bed is now silted
up level with the plain. (This bit of
country is covered with the remains of
smaller canals.) Assuming, as is natural, that this canal was here at its
debouchement, some 8 or 10' deep with 4 or 5' of water in it, its water level
differs but slightly from that of the present small canal in the Khadir.
j| The canals not worked since the 15th century
are only traceable where the canal cut through a
gravel bed. The soil has been washed or blown
away. Only the gravel remains. Channels dug by
the Kalla-i-Kath Rulers in the 15th century and
which flowed up to end of 17th or middle of 18th
century are clearly visible even in light soil.
T. R. J. Wakd,— 7-7-03.
•[f No, not 10 / , but only 7' 6". 10' is. however, near
enough.