‘GAZETTEER OF PERSIA VOL. I Comprising the Provinces of ASTARÁBÁD, SHÁHRUD-BÚSTAN, KHÚRÁSÁN, AND SÍSTÁN’ [‎29r] (62/722)

the loss of many thousand lives in Khurasan may be charged. In the
Gurgan tracts I was informed that in the autumn of 1872, the time when
the famine was at its height, wheat was in such abundance that no market
nould be found for it in the country ; and it did not repay exportation.
Although grain was dear enough in the highlands and plentiful in Astara-
bad at the time I passed through the country, so far as I could ascertain
but a small quantity was exported from Naudih and the Gurgan to Jah
Jarm. At Sbahrud prices remained double those ruling in the town of
Astarabad itself, and at the same time wheat had been shipped at Gez for the
distant part of Astrakhan.
The second staple of food in the district and all along the southern
shores of the Caspian is rice. In the western buluks
Eice. little else is grown, the wheat-growing tracts being
chiefly to the east about Fin derisk and Katul. A
large quantity is exported to Shahrud and to Russia from Gez. A rough esti
mate of the quantity sent to Shahrud during the last season gives 2,500 khar-
wars (=120 tons), the exportation being confined mainly to the two months
that intervene between the harvest in October and the closing of the passes.
The greater portion of this would, of course, be at the disposal of a force
holding the country and main lines of communication. The Goklan and
the Yamut “Chumurs^ grow, lam informed, a considerable quantity of
wheat beyond their own requirements for sale and barter to the Char wars "
or nomad Yamuts; bufc this source of supply would not be available to a
Russian force unless they should succeed in securing the hearty co-operation
of the tribes.
From the resources of the district of Astarabad alone it would thus appear
that a large force could hardly be supported for any
Resources of Astarabad length of time, and could certainly not rely upon the
insufficient for a large as a base from whence a continuous supply
force ‘ for a distant expedition might be collected. Improve
ments of communications will, no doubt, lead to a great extension of the
corn-growing area and of the capabilities of the district for supply as a con
sequence ; but such improvements progress slowly in Persia.
Large armies have nevertheless within very recent times been marched
into and maintained for some months in and about Astarabad.
Not more than eight years ago a Persian force, estimated at 40,000 men,
crossed the mountains from Shahrud, and passed into the Gurgan plain
from the Kalposh plateau, a route comparatively easy, but still scarcely a
practicable one for the supply of so large an army in the field. I found
on inquiry that this force, though aided to some extent by the Goklan,
had not subsisted on the produce of the country, nor on supplies brought
up from a distance along their original line of march, but had at once
opened communication with Astarabad, an operation facilitated by the flight
of the Yamuts across the Gurgan, and had obtained supplies from Mazan-
daran and the hilly country known as the Hazar Janb, both of which are
difficult of access from Astarabad.
There were up to last date but two regular regiments m garrison at
Astarabad—the regiment of Firuz-Kuln, 800 strong,
Forces of Astarabad, anC j t | le regiment of Hazar Jarib, 700 strong, both
regular ' recruited in the adjacent mountains. Of the latter a
detachment of 350 men is stationed permanently at Ak-Kala, five miles
north of Astarabad, the only post in the district for regulai Loops.