‘GAZETTEER OF PERSIA VOL. I Comprising the Provinces of ASTARÁBÁD, SHÁHRUD-BÚSTAN, KHÚRÁSÁN, AND SÍSTÁN’ [‎26v] (57/722)

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covered with forest; the remainder is chiefly mountain pasture and barren
rock. Save in the Kohsar, where there are some tine stretches of cornland,
the cultivated area would bear but a small proportion to the forest and
waste.
Astarabad is rendered by natural obstacles peculiarly difficult of access.
It is most open towards the Caspian, but there still
Routes and Roads. intervene between the town and the shore of the
Ashurada Bay 14 miles of low swampy forest land,
over which the impedimenta of an army could not be transported without
the construction of a road and numerous bridges.
Troops landed at Gumush Tapa might, by a detour, reach Astarabad with
out much difficulty, save in time of flood. The distance would be 30 miles.
The Anizan buluk forming the western border is covered with impenetrable
forest, and traversed by numerous small streams flowing in deep and muddy
beds.
I he Shah Abbas causeway was once an efficient highway, though it is
now so completely ruined by neglect that the traffic of the country passes
on either side of it through deep sloughs, which are however preferable to
the broken pavement of the road with its treacherous pitfalls. The nature
of the streams flowing invariably in narrow and permanent beds, a-nd the
unlimited supply of wood at hand, would facilitate the construction of a
temporary road for the passage of troops; and a well raised and drained
permanent-way might with moderate care be kept open at all seasons.
To the south the district is cut off from easy access with the highlands
of Khurasan and Irak by the Alburz. The passes
Across the Alburz, leading directly south across the range are all exceed
ingly difficult, and could not be traversed by a pro
perly equipped army without much delay and labour in road-making.
Exclusive of village paths, which are for the most part fit only for mule
traffic, there are three principal lines that might be improved into fair mili
tary roads.
The first passes through Anizan, the village Gulugah, and Mazandaran
as far as the Bul-i-Nikah, where it turns north-east, following the Nikah
or Shamsherbar stream up to its source. The second follows the same line
as far as Gulugah; then turning south over a great forest-covered spur
meets the former at Radkan. The third crosses the mountains due south
east of Astarabad by the Kuzluk pass. A description of all three routes is
given in the appendix on routes.
To the east the district is shut in by the hilly country drained by the
Gurgan and Atrak; but there is one magnificent natural pass through the
chain which would facilitate the opening of communication with the eastern
provinces. Some details regarding it also are given in the appendix on
routes.
To the south-east there is a route across the Grugan plain and up the
Atrak and its tributaries; the Chandir and Ab-i-Sunt, and past Kari-Eala
to the Akhal “ Atak,” which will, according to native information, be
found to present many advantages over the desert route by Kizil-Arvat.
Northwards Astarabad and the Atrak-Gurgan plain "is shut in by the
desert that extends to the foot of the Ust-Urt plateau and north-east to
the Oxus.
There are. several routes across this desert, of which, however, no fresh
information is available. One of them, from Chikishliar north by the Aiden