"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" [و‎‎١‎١‎٦] (٣١٢/٢٣٦)

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such a community. Round tho camp were numbers of the large white breeo
of do«-s kept by the nomad Kurds. They are splendid watch dogs.
The headman of the camp is Muhammad Agha’s younger brother.
The country from Shernakh may be said to be entirely desolate, no one
being met all the way, and no villages seen.
It is well wooded, with several fertile valleys and streams, and the reason
f or being deserted was that no one would settle in such a district to be attacked
and looted by nomad Kurds in the migrations.
There was a considerable change in the temperature at this ^elevation
(7,720'). At noon it was 63°, and it froze at night (temperature 31 and 30 ),
the ground in the morning being white with hoar frost. r lhe temperature
was 107° at Jazirah at noon barely a week ago.
Air was clear and bracing. Nights felt intensely cold to new arrivals from
the plains. Children play about here in the snow in a state of perfect nudity
and filth, so that only the fittest of them can possibly survive.
Cowdung is principally used for fuel. Wood is brought on donkeys from
the other side of the ridge. . ,
There has been a constant ascent from Bustasar (4,530 ) to the top of the
* pass (8,155'), a total of 3,625 feet in one stage.
The Dahazir Dagh is the chief outlying ridge of the mountains which ex
tend eastward from here to Van and Baslikala.
There is a rocky ridge along the summit from 9,000 to^ 10,000 feet eleva
tion and nearly level. It runs for 10 miles north-west of Maidan Jashush, when
it ends abruptly, and where a deep valley intervenes. The isolated craggy peak
of Awrakh forms a sort of continuation of it in this direction, and is distant
19 miles. . .
In the opposite direction the range runs east-south-east for 8 miles, getting
gradually higher from the pass, and overlooks the Khabur valley to the
south-east. _ ..... i i i i
The summit was thickly covered with snow in this direction, and looked
rugged and impassable.
" Shostheh l)«gh. —To the south-west, and running nearly east and west, is
the Shostheh Dagh at an elevation of about 9,000 feet.
The ridge is 11 miles long with three rounded peaks, all of which are still
thickly covered with snow. The central peak was calculated 9,200 feet above
sea level,
The top of the Shernakh pass bears 253° from the Dahazir pass.
The central peak of the Shostheh Dagh bears 2:23°, and the eastern end
of the Halakur Dagh 295° from here.
6th July—General direction E. Deft Maidan Jashush,having been most
hospitably treated by these Kurds. Six men were given as guides.
The road at first was a broad track ascending the grassy valley in an
easterly direction. . ,
At 2| miles we reached the summit of a grassy spur (elevation 8,250 ),
.and then by a gradual descent followed the shaly slope of the hill into a
deep basin stretched at our feet.
To the north towards lake Van was an extensive view of mountain
ranges with no particularly prominent peaks, all thickly patched with snow
and interspersed with grassy stretches. Shattak and Meuk lay in this direction.
Ruekaran Stream.*— miles reach bottom of descent (7,455 ), a narrow
grassy valley, in which flowed a large stream called the Ruekaran.
This stream comes from the snowy slope of the Dahazir Dagh to the south,
and flows due north, being soon lost to sight in a narrow deep valley
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