‘GAZETTEER OF PERSIA VOL. I Comprising the Provinces of ASTARÁBÁD, SHÁHRUD-BÚSTAN, KHÚRÁSÁN, AND SÍSTÁN’ [‎16v] (37/722)

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and is exceedingly rugged in outline, the spurs running into the “ Atak
being more precipitous and inaccessible than any other part of the whole
range. The principal elevations, the Kuh-i-Imarat, Kuh-i-Tamas, Kara-
Dagh, and Taka-Khana, the last eastwards, have a nearly uniform elevation
of about 10,000 feet above sea level.
The drainage of the East Alburz passes almost entirely to the west and
north. South the wide plain of Juvain and Isferain (which is divided only
by a single narrow ridge), with a width of from 30 to 40 miles, and a length
from the border of Nishapur to Riabad west of Jah Jarm of about 130 miles, is
drained by a single narrowband shallow channel known as the Kal-i-Shur,
which flows under the Pul-i-Abnsham. The surface of the plain is level and
the soil fertile; but from lack of water it appears sterile, and is but little
cultivated.
The first pass in the Alburz, east of Astarabad, is one from the Bustan plain,
crossing the chain to Gfurgan, a line little likely to be used, and presenting also
great natural difficulties. It was traversed about the year 1870 by a Per
sian force of 40,000 men with thirty guns. Leaving Bustan it passes over
the plain north-east, crosses a high shoulder of the Khush-Ailak mountain,
into the Naudfh valley at Chinask, and thence up the valley to Nardfn, the
Kalposh plateau, and over a high ridge of the Gurgan. The total feet
of ascent by this route would be from 7,000 to 8,000; the total descent
from 8,000 to 10,000. The Persian guns were dragged by hand all through
the pass. The road over the Khush-Ailak mountain would, in ordinary
winters, be closed for two or three months.
The next pass in succession is that by Nardfn and Naudfh. This,
though little used, is shorter and easier, and offers facilities for the construc
tion of a railway only exceeded by those of the more circuitous route to the
east by the Gurgan defile. The main chain is for some 20 miles, from
the Kuh-i-Buhar to Nardfn, broken into low disconnected ridges, between
which intervene wide expanses of ravine-cleft pasture lands. Beyond Nar-
din the ridge rises again and continues in an unbroken line westward.
Trap rock predominates in the geological formation, and the rich soil thus
afforded supports a more than ordinarily luxuriant vegetation.
From Nardin northward to the Atak the only pass said to be passable
for guns is that over the Kalposh plain, and thence over the high spurs of the
Khurkhud mountain into the valley of the Garma Khan, crossing the stream
at Chihal Guzr; but any line crossing the whole of the Atrak tributaries
must necessarily be a difficult one.
Bujnurd, Nfshapur, and Mashhad may be reached by the old highway
of Shahabad, which runs up the Gurgan stream to Gurgan, through the
defile Chanda Abbas, Rubat-i-Karabit, Rubat-i-Ashk, and Shanghai!; thence
to Bujnurd by the pass of Ffruza, and to Nfshapur through the Darband-i-
Hisar and the Juvain plain.
The upper part of the Gurgan valley is narrow, but the road good and
gradients very easy, for the ascent in 18 to 20 miles cannot be above 2,000
to 2,500 feet. The defile of Gurgan had once a good road through it and
beyond to the open plateau, which was said to be (in 1874) passable for
horsemen in spite of a dense growth of forest. The plateaux undulate
very easily, and have a width of several miles. The Bujnurd pass is diffi
cult, but that of the Darband-i-Hisar exceedingly easy. The route keeps
throughout so low that no great inconvenience could ever be experienced from
snow in winter. For a railway to the east no better line could be selected.