'Lord Curzon's Notes on Persia: About 1889-1890' [‎453r] (925/1486)

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Kuh i-Rang is to the Bakhtiari country. It is a main tap for many
mountain springs, and its well nurtured but rugged spurs afford
favorite camping grounds. The next range is the already men
tioned Shuturun Kuh (lit., Camel Mountain, from its shape). It
too is grand in its ruggedness on the southern side. The last
mountain requiring special mention is the “ Parwez ” It has
a large fairly level summit, with snow springs till July, eleva
tion about 11,000 feet. It is conspicuous from the northern low
lands of Burujird and Silakhor, for it stands out as the end of the
Outer range, having a perpendicular scarp from its summit to
the Bahrain gap of 5,000 feet (Photos No. 100, 13).
As alreadv noticed from out of the Kuh-i-Rang and its vicinity
flows abundance of water. Present local
Rivers ' nomenclature to the contrary, this mountain
holds the sources of the Karun. Though this stream is locally
known as the “ Kurang,” short for Kuh-i-Rang, the local savage
perversity gives the name of Sar-i-Chashma-i-Kurang, /if. the
head source of the Karun, ” to a fountain spring, jutting out of
the side of the Zard-Kuh, some ten miles down the valley. (Photo
No 87). There are many such fountain springs in the Bakhtiari
country. A continuous flow of water, with sections reaching 150
square feet, is frequently met with, gushing out of a smooth rock
mountain side with torrent rapidity, having all the year round the
same velocity and quantity. Occasionally sudi springs are inter
mittent, the rest periods varying from two hours to two days.
The south side of the Parwez hill contains one such, high up the
perpendicular side, 3> 0O ° a bove the valley.
Owing to such springs (e. g., the Marburra 20 miles below the
Sar-i-Chashma) the Karun even in its upper course becomes almost
at once a formidable river. 1 hat is, a fast flowing stream, from 5°
to 100 yards wide and seldom fordable except in the driest of
weather and that only above the Sar Chashma its reputed source
(Photo Nos. 85-86). Its banks moreover are always steep and deep,
and in places for long reaches it flows between, precipitous almost
perpendicular banks of 1,000 to 3 > ooc> (Photo No. 7)*
Its waters are therefore useless for irrigation, but many of. its trib
utaries are fully made use of in this respect. 1 he velocity of its
ceaseless flow, however, makes its potential water power of great
value when the inhabitants of its banks and valleys become
sufficiently alive to it. Greater savages than the Bakhtians, such
as out-of-the-way Burmans (to wit, in Wuntho and on the Upper
Mu) would have made use of this power ere now.
The course of the Kurang is a peculiar one, dictated by the
mountain formation. From its source it flows due south-east for
100 miles, then with a sharp almost acute bend it flows south-west