Correspondence and Papers on Persia [‎47r] (84/107)

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and as would appear to be the fact from the scantiness of
the population, and the great distances intervening be
tween the villages, one train a week either wav would be
quite sufficient for all the goods and passengers that
it would be found required to convey to and fro between
Teheran and Ispahan.
26. The fact is that pack animals as they are the
traditional means of transport of the countiy, so they are
v i. * i f^ose best suited to its nature and the
requirements of the population, and if
it be desired to facilitate the means of communication
this object would be best attained by improving the mule
and camel paths at present existing, and keeping them in
repair generally. By this, no slight benefit would accrue
to the population, for on better paths the animals could
move with far greater speed than at present, and infi-
nitely less waste of material, whereby the charges for trans
port would be materially diminished, while the sums spent
on a cart road of 400 miles or so in length would suffice
to put and keep in thorough repair all the paths in Persia.
As it is, during the winter months, in many parts of the
country, communication is not unfrequently completely
stopped for many weeks together owing to the depth of
snow upon the mountains, and the accumulation of water
in the valleys and on the plains, where, owing to the
nature of the soil and the utter absence of drainage, it
frequently turns the surface of the ground into a quag
mire capable of swallowing up the mules and their loads
together.
-7. Begarding the mineral viealth of Persia, this is a
subject beyond my sphere. I can, therefore, only repeat
Minerals w ^ la ^ ^ have heard from the natives of the
country or Europeans who have been many
years resident there, and have more less studied the
question.
It appears to be generally recognised that abundance of
small deposits of copper and other minerals exist, and
that these are of good quality in most cases, but every
place where these are to be found has been known to the
inhabitants of the country and worked by them for cen
turies, till such limited supplies as were obtainable from
these sources have been pretty well exhausted.
Coal is found in many places, but as the thickest seams
yet discovered do not, I believe, exceed 2 feet 6 inches in
thickness, it can hardly be said to be present in sufficient
quantities to repay working upon an extensive scale,
especially if the expense of transport be taken into con
sideration. It is supposed to exist in greater quantities
below the surface of the Kasvin Valley, but the artesian
boring which has been made in Teheran by the Doctor
to the American Mission has penetrated, I am told, to a
depth of 300 feet, and yet not passed through the region
of alluvial deposit or encountered rock.
I am told, moreover, that the geological formation of
the surface of the ground generally in Persia is of a much
more recent era than that in which great deposits of
mineral are usually found, and that such deposits, if
existing at all, could only, from the evidence given by the
strata of which the hills and mountains are composed, be
found at a very great depth belo^v the surface, such as
would render their working very difficult indeed, if not
quite impossible.
28. Persia, thus, is not a country the resources of which
are capable of any very extensive degree of development ;
General indeed, had that been the case, it is difficult to
remarks, imagine how so many centuries could have
passed, during which it has been inhabited by nations of
more or less superior degrees of civilization and intelli
gence—for that the present population has, as a rule,
strong claims to both these attributes is undoubtedly the