‘GAZETTEER OF PERSIA VOL. I Comprising the Provinces of ASTARÁBÁD, SHÁHRUD-BÚSTAN, KHÚRÁSÁN, AND SÍSTÁN’ [‎196v] (399/722)

346
The Perso-Afghan
frontier.
Persian line of frontier are the villages or tracts belonging to Sarbaz and
Bahu Dastyari. The boundary of Dasht is marked by a long line drawn
through the Darabul hill, situated between the rivers Bahu and Dasht to
the sea, in the bay of Gwatar.
To summarise : Panjgur and Parom and other dependencies, with Kuhak,
Balaida, including Zamiran and other dependencies ; Mund, including Tump,
Nasrabad, Raj, and all districts, ‘ dihs/ and dependencies, to the eastward •
Dasht, with its dependencies, as far as the sea. These names exhibit the line
(of demarcation) of the actual possession of Kalat ; that is to say, all tracts
to the east of the frontier of actual Persian possession, which frontier
comprises Dizak and Bampusht, Sarbaz and Pishin, Bahu and Dastyari.
From this point the line is again drawn in a north-easterly direction
straight to Kuhak, a point on the Helmand river, which
is here joined by one of its principal left tributaries.
Following this stream until it enters the large reedv
swamp, Naizar, it turns to the west; and skirting the swamp as far as the
point where the track to Lash enters it, it crosses the Naizar in a straight
line to the summit of Siah Kuh. From Siah Kuh the line is drawn direct
to Kuh-i-Atashan, and thence to the nearest point of the Chah Sagak
mountains, which it follows as far as the pass. From Chah Sagak pass
the approximate frontier runs to the nearest point of Kuh Sang-i-Dukhtar.
Crossing a salt desert in a northerly direction, it recrosses the Kuh
Sang-i-Dukhtar, and strikes the Tajan or Hari Bud river at the confluence
of its tributary from the Yaktan Kuh. From this point it continually
follows the Hari Bud as far as an undefined point in the neighbourhood of
Pul-i-Khatun where the Perso-Afghan border ends.
The frontier to the north of Khurasan remains undefined. In Russian
The frontier to the ma ps, up to 1863, it is shown running along the
north of Khurasan. crest of the Daman-i-Kuh, or Atak, and continuing
thence to the Murghab; but in the same maps, corrected
up to 1875, it is made to follow the river Atrak to its source.
As, moreover, the recent Russian explorations and the travels of Colonel Val
entine Baker and Lieutenant Gill, r.e., in 1875, have
resulted in fixing the source of the true Atrak at the head
of a dry torrent near Kabushan, and in showing that it
flows in a north-westerly direction through Shirwan and
Bujnurd, receiving several considerable affluents from
K ul ’an Dagh on the north, but none of importance
from the hills to the south, and that it is, in fact, the stream shown on
existing maps as the Garma Ivhana or Garma Bud—a name more pro
perly applied to. part of a valley it flows through ; whereas in the same
maps the Atrak is shown as rising near Abivard, about long. 60°, flowing
< ^ ue through four degrees of longitude before turning south-west to
the Caspian, and receiving many affluents from either side in its course, it
will .be seen that a settlement of this point in a sense unfavourable to
Persia would be of considerable importance ; for some of the districts involved
are amongst the most fertile in Persia.
The military occupation of the country by Persia is in the direction of the
Limit of Persian lower Atrak, practically limited by the line of the
military occupation. Kara Su ; but parts of the Yamut tribe of Turkumans,
The he^rd^f S h °- Can i P ° n b ° th ^nks of the Atrak, pay tribute to
Peisia, the amount depending’ on the activity of the
Russian encroach
ments as shown by
their maps.
The value of the
country thus claimed
by Russia.
tribes on the border.