"دليل بلاد فارس. مجلد I" [ظ‎‎٢‎٨‎٢] (٨٢٠/٥٨١)

542
MES-MES
f _ . . C Summer, 20 Tumdns
| Ka^awahmule Iwhrt^ 24 „
Meshed to Yazd ' Palki mule | ^utumer, 16 „
^Winter, 18 „
. (Summer 10 „
Samishin | wintet 12 _
(Sarnishin is one man riding with about an Indian maund, of kit.)
N.B.— Weights —
100 mans~equal 1 Jcharwdr.
1 kharwdr equals 649 !b, or about 8 Indian maunds.
(Curzon; C. E. Yale ; Khordsdn Trade Report, 1901-05; W. R. Battye,
1906; Redl, 1906; Reunion, Smyth, 1906.)
MESHED (No. 2) (District)—
A district of Khorasan, which extends from the city of Meshed north-
Area west up the valley as far as Saiyich h, about 60 miles ;
south, to the Turbat-i-Haidari border about 40
miles ; west, to the watershed of the Binalud range, 20 miles ; east, to the
Hari Rud about 100 miles; north-east, to Kalat 60 m les. An area of 6,000
to 7,000 square miles, of which 2,000 may be set down as level valley or
p 1 ateau land, more or less cultivable when there are facilities of water.
The remaining area includes high mountain ranges, rising to 8,000 or
9,000 feet, and showing but few cultivable spots and scanty herbage for
cattle.
Though, owing to the cessation of the Turkoman raids and maintenance
of peace, the district has considerably recovered, and a large number of new
villages have been built, and old irrigation channels repaired during the last
20 years, the whole of the cultivable tract has not yet been brought under
cultivation.
The finest villages lie along the Kashaf Rud and hidden in the barren
y.,, ravines of the Mihrabad and Kalat ranges, where
small perennial streams support a luxuriant growth
of garden and vineyards, but little or no corn land. In Jagharq, the finest
example of these “ garden ” villages, the grain ra sed is actually by about
half insufficient for the population of the village. The villages on the
Kalat or northern range are in this respect in a slightly better situation ;
for the hill slopes are there less steep and rocky, and yield grain crops
dependent on rainfall only. From Meshed to Herat the road is too well
known to call for remark. It is practicable for wheeled carriage.
The valley of the Kashaf Rud from Chinaran to Meshed forms the sub-
Valley of the Kashaf district Mian-i-Vilaiat, while the country south-east
Rud, Mian Vilaiat of Meshed is called Pain-i-Vilaiat (middle and
and Pain Vilaiat. lower country); many of the villages of the Mian-i-
Vilalat sub-district are inhabited by the Kaivanlu Kurds.