‘Persia – especially Seistan’ [‎125v] (249/949)

Observations lead me to believe that a canal 10' ab >ve the latter would
command the whole dasht lying between the old bed of the Helmand that runs
past Tarakun on the north and the Shelag and Gaud-i-Zirreh on the south,
for it seems that this dasht is merely the talus of the branch of the Helmand
that escaped from the main river at Band-i-Kamal Khan.
1 should explain that this section was carried on much further than was
r , A , M necessary by my surveyor. I told him
The information is most useful. A few mi.es • 1 . 1 * nr
more would have given some valuable information alter _L UaCl examined the UUlla 101 twelve
as to the depth of the Gaud-i-z^rreh. ^ miles to carry the section down till it was
clear that it (the nulla) entered the Gaud-
i-Zirreh and did not terminate in a nawar. I merely regarded the route as one
for turning water into that basin. Reports as regards the soil of the Gaud-i-
Zirreh are, however, bad. My surveyor marched all along the south-east edge
to Gumbaz and reports most of it as salt quagmire. A section from Killa
Afzal to Irkaft would have settled the question as to the existence of a hump
in the dasht; if there is not, then the whole tract of the Dasht-i-Tarakun
could be irrigated by a canal along that alignment, I need scarcely observe
that clinometers are quite useless in detecting slopes of three or four feet per
mile, more particularly as isolated ridges overlapping each other give the
horizon the appearance of being high all round.
4. Section No. II commences at the end of the Killa Afzal water channel
about two miles from Killa Afzal and 8 from Band-i-Kamal Khan and after
being carried down the bed of the river to a place called Burri, 7 miles below
Tarakun, was carried across country in a south-west direction for 6 miles, till it
was perfectly clear that there was no intervening ridge between the point
where it terminates and the edge of the dasht where it meets the Shelag “ Pat
It will he noticed that the fall of the river bed, which is exceedingly
tortuous, averages feet per mile, which allows free scope for raising the
water onto the plain.
(I might further observe that from Band-i-Kamal Khan to the end of the
* Yes, see section on plan it. channel where the section commenced
t. r. j. ward. there is probably a fall of 20'* in the eight
miles, a further assistance in gaining head.)
The two sections, I should say, are notf
connected. Both start from water level
of the same channel, but in the interven
ing three miles there is probably 8 / of fall.
They are, however, quite independent of
each other.
The left hank of the old bed of the Helmand is low, varying from 10' to
40' except where isolated bluffs occur. I might, as it appears, have taken
No. II section across country fr.>m Tarakun or even some miles above that. I
have no doubt now that I should have found the water level of an ideal canal
from Killa Afzal or Kamal Band well above the level of the plain, anvwhere
after the twelfth mile, barring isolated bluffs and ridges, hut I did not wish to
make any had shots ^ and so lose time. Besides my attention then was more
concentrated on obtaining a route for a canal to the Gaud-i-Zirreh via the
Shelag rather than on the levels of a canal to irrigate the whole of the Tarakun
Dasht.
f A pity ; if the sections were connected and had
run a little further into the Gaud-i-Zirreh much
valuable information a* to depth of lake would have
been acquired. But we were lucky to have got what
we have got.
T. R. J. Ward.
5. My investigations lead me to believe it certain that the Dasht-i-Tarakun
See paragraph 13 of Appendix e. from Kama! Band east, south and west
t R. J. Ward, 8-7-03. f rorQ the Gaud-i-Zirreh to the Helmand
Hamun via the Shelag, is merely a talus or glacis of this old branch of the
Helmand and that by raising the water level of the existing canal by 10' by
a band at Kama! Khan (5 of which could probably be gained in the fall from
Band-i-Kamal Khan to Killa Afzal) the whole of this dasht south of the line
of the Tarakun branch could be commanded.
—I paid no attention to the dasht lying north of this old branch,
i.6.) between laiakun and the Helmand at Oik Dela. It all appeared to be
much more elevated than the southern tract.