'ROUTES IN PERSIA. SECTION III' [‎113v] (231/739)

172
No. 94— contd.
kalit-i-nadiri to Bajgirha (Pehsian), Chapashlu and Muhammadabad,
No.
of
stage.
Names of stages.
Distancbs
in miles.
Interna e«
diate.
Total.
Ebmabks.
11
B ajgieha
SIAN).
5,500'.
(Peb-
14
108
The various villages comprising the Durungar Baluk
are simply known by the names of their headmen,
and have no abiding designation. The Baluk is
terminated, and the head, of the Daragaz valley
is closed by a gorge with precipitous rocks rising
two and three hundred feet on either side at the
entrance and rising higher and higher further on.
This gorge is said to be quite impassable.
Two roads lead, out of the valley. The one to the
south of the gorge to Durbadam.
The second leads to the north of the gorge to Sham-
khal and thence along the ^ skabad-Kuchan high
road to the frontier at Bajgirha.
The respective distances are said to be 5 farsakhs
to Durbadam, but with a less difficult road, and
3| farsakhs to Bajgirha. By the latter it takes
about seven hours to do those 3| farsakhs, so bad
is the road.
Leaving the valley just to the right of the gorge,
commence with an ascent of 1,275 feet according
to the aneroid, straight up the side of a steep
hill. Thence up and down, in and out of various
ravines along the southern slope of the hills with
the Durungar river gorge below on the left the
whole way. At about the 7th mile we got to the
foot of the Kotal-i-Chubast, the crowning difficulty
of the whole march. Here necessary to climb
up the almost perpendicular face of a hill for some
400 feet and then a passage along a narrow rocky
ledge with a steep declivity below and nasty rocks
jutting out above every here and there, just so
placed as to catch the loads on the mules and send
the animals over the edge. It took an hour and
a half to get the few Abdari and other mules
over this pass, and at one place felts had to be
laid down to get the horses or mules up at all.
Beyond this there is an easy and gradual descent to
Shamkhal, where the first water was reached at
about the 11th mile. The muleteers suffer greatly
from the want of water on the road, and any one
doing this march should be careful to carry water
with him. The baggage mules, which started at
5 a.m ,, did not reach Bajgirha till 4 p.m ., and
many of them then with cut and bruised legs and
heads from their frequent falls on the rocks.
Shamkhal is a small village just at the head of a
second precipitous gorge which runs down and
joins the main Durungar stream gorge.
About a mile beyond is the high road at Mihman-
khana. This place consists of nothing but the
Persian Custom-house by the side of a huge