"استطلاعات في بلاد الرافدين وكردستان وشمال غرب بلاد فارس ولرستان في الفترة من أبريل إلى أكتوبر ١٨٨٨، كتبها المقدم ف. ر. مونسيل، فرع الاستخبارات. يوجد مجلدان. المجلد الأول: تقرير سردي ووصف للمدن الكبرى والطرق المؤدية منها. شيملا: فرع الاستخبارات، إدارة قائد الإمداد والتموين، ١٨٩٠" [و‎‎٦‎٨] (٣١٢/١٤٠)

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also confined in a narrow g-orge in the hills 200 to 300 yards wide,
bordered by cliffs 300 to 500 feet high. Some enormous fragments of rock
have in places become detached from the cliffs above, and obstruct the flow of
the torrent, and the banks are well wooded with sycamore, ilex, and various
shrubs. In one place the road leads into the water to avoid a jut tin" cliff and
m floods it would be impassable. Near the mouth of the gorge is a bridge of
tree trunks, stretched across the piers of an old masonry bridge (l^OdT
At 12 miles we emerged through a rift, about 40 yards wide, into an open
valley, surrounded by low wooded hills.
Koniatman. Shortly after passed Ghalifan, a village with a few vineyards
and ascenfied some low spurs to the north-west. At 15 miles halted in Ko'
mat man (2,965'), a small village overlooking the valley just left. Water
is from two large springs, and there are a few orchards on the hillside.
. ln a directum 266° the valley of the Great Zab could be seen : the interven
ing country is Thidulating and bare of trees.
To the south and south-west are a succession of low, rocky ridges, the first
being about 4 miles distant, covered with low trees.
In a direction 147° runs the valley of the Ghalifan Su, 1 to H miles wide,
gradually narrowing. It grows patches of rice and a few orchards along the
stream bank. There seems a very slight watershed between this and the north
west end of the valley of Rania traversed on last route.
A route also lies to tCoi Sanjak across the ridges to the south-west.
The soil is stony with jaggedmasses of limestone protruding here and there,
hut with rich black loam between the stones. It grows low^ trees and some
fine clover.
To the north-east and east a great mass of snow-covered mountains shut
in the view.
From 78° to 83° was the Kandil Dagh. Extending from 72° to 75° was
the Boz Dagh, the latter bearing being to the highest point. Bearing 64°
was a conical peak covered with snow.
Weather today clear and fine.
26th May—General direction, N.W. Continue along main road towards
Erbil and Mosul. A low wooded ridge, which we cross, forms the watershed
between the Ghalifan Su and the Zab.
Karakhm .—At 2 miles passed a rocky ravine with stream from the right,
up which is the large village of Karakhin, among orchards and vineyards
and a ruined castle. The Kurds from here to the Zab are called Sursi, said to
be great thieves, and to have a very bad name for robbing caravans, &c.
At 4| miles leave the main road and telegraph and follow a side valley bare
of trees.
Presently we turn north-west through a gap in the low ridge near the village*
and spring of Amoka (1,745'), and emerge on a wide bare upland overlooking
the Zab. A few nomad tents with their flocks still remain here, but mosl;
had migrated to the hills. A few patches of wheat and maize grow round
the village and along the banks of the Zab, otherwise the soil, though fertile,
is uncultivated. There is a fringe of long grass by the river banks. The
track skirts the base of a steep rocky range to the north-east, the last outlier
of the mountainous country west of Rawanduz, through which the Zab forces
its way.
A slight path leads across an undulating country with several small springs
in the valleys.
At 10| miles pass Berdin, a small village on a bluff overlooking the
river.