Geographical Journal (Journal of the Royal Geographical Society): Volume VIII, No. 5 [‎34v] (71/154)

474 DE MORGAN’S “MISSION SCIENTIFIQUE” TO PERSIA.
Axnedition for the extremely valuable mapwork he executed. In your names I
return thanks to Mr. Yorke, Mr. Myres, and Lieut. Gr een.
Mr Yorke’s Map.— The map of the valley of the Upper Euphrates has been
constructed by Mr. F. W. Green. The bearings were taken by piismatic compass,
distances estimated by time, and the heights above the sea-level obtained by
aneroid. Some of the detail has been added from Captain Maunsell’s Survey, 1892,
and other sources.
DE MORGAN’S “MISSION SCIENTIFIQUE” TO PERSIA.
By Major-Gen. Sir F. GOLDSMID, C.B., K.C.S.I.
We have now before us the second volume of the ‘Etudes Geogra-
phiques,’ or results of the scientific mission to Persia, conducted by M. J.
de Morgan, of which the first part was noticed in the Journal for August,
1895. The large amount of information which it contains, original and
compiled, renders it a valuable reference to those who seek a closer
acquaintance with the tracts in North-Western and Western Persia ; but
it can hardly be said to open out any great extent of new country.
Notes of available bibliography—almost identical with those to be found
in Curzon’s ‘ Persia’ *—disclose at once to us how many older travellers
have helped to a due appreciation of that portion of Kurdistan which
tacitly admits, if it does not openly proclaim, the sovereignty of the
Shah; and it is equally evident that a like attention has been given to
non-Kurdish districts.
The geographical limits of the country under exploration are shown
under nine heads : (1) The Kurdistan of Mukri; (2) the Kurdistan
of Sehna; (3) the Kurdistan of Kirmanshahan; (4) the Province of
Hamadan; (5) Malayer and Burujird; (6) Northern Luristan; |(7) the
Pusht-i-Kuh; (8) Susiana; and (9) the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. . For each of these
there are subdivisions discussing respectively physical geography,
climate, flora and fauna, and population; while for the greater number
separate treatment is accorded to towns, villages, and monuments,
mineral riches, as also commerce, agriculture, and local industries.
Under the Pusht-i-Kuh, or “ back of the hill,” special notice is taken of
ruins. On the other hand, there is no mention made of towns or villages
for the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. .
M. de Morgan’s ‘Kurdistan de Moukri,’ with which his volume
opens, is a comprehensive chapter relating to the country traversed by
Mr. Walter Harris, some five years later than the French writer The lowest of the four classes into which East India Company civil servants were divided. A Writer’s duties originally consisted mostly of copying documents and book-keeping. , and
described by sketch-map and letterpress in our Journal for November
last. The actual route taken by the two explorers was not alsvays
* Twenty-two out of the twenty-three books of reference on Persian Kurdistan, for
instance, are the same, and placed in precisely the same order, as those noted by
Mr. Curzon.