مجموعة ٢٨/٢٨ "بلاد فارس: الحدود الفارسية البلوشستانية؛ تعيين الحدود قرب ميرجاوه." [ظ‎‎٥‎١] (٦٥٨/١١٣)

6
A
25. Thus the one great difficulty which it appeared might probably lead to
long delay and protracted operations through the hot weather months, when
water and supplies would be procured only with the greatest trouble through
Persian Agency, and which might finally (as it afterwards turned out) have led
to a temporary abandonment of demarcation on the death of the Shah, was
happily removed at the outset. Por no further discussion was ever raised as
regards the northern section of the boundary. Our maps and reports were
accepted unquestioned, and the provisional boundary was finally adopted
permanently with hut slight modification.
26. The total length of boundary demarcated was about 290 miles, of
which rather more than half belong to the northern section between Malik
S:ah Koh and the Mashkel hamun. The demarcation of the southern section
from pillar 1 on the Mashkel river was commenced on the 28th ^February in
accordance with the agreement made on the basis of the maps with the
Itisham. On the 26th, pillar No. 1 was erected by a working party drawn
from the Baluch sepoys of the 80th Bombay Infantry, who formed our escort;
and was officially inspected by both Commissioners on the 29th, Colonel
Wahab (accompanied by Prince Suliman Mirza) was detached with the survey
party to visit the Siahan range, and to commence fresh triangulation if possible,
whilst making a close J-inch survey of the actual boundary as a check on the
mapping. All arrangements were completed for the forward march of the two
camps to Jalk (level with which point the position of the boundary had been
fixed at our first meeting) which commenced on the 1st and 2nd March
respectively, the Persian camp preceding that of the English by one day m
order to avoid too much drain on the scanty water-supply.
27. Demarcation proceeded rapidly and satisfactorily up to pillar No. 7
which was placed exactly half-way between Jalk and Ladgasht as indicated in
the Tehran agreement ; and on the 14th at Jalk, a second official meeting was
held which practically concluded our agreement as to this southern section.
28. The route taken by the Commission between Kohuk and Jalk followed
the Mashkel Valley upwards as far as Isfandak, crossing the spurs of the Siahan
range on the left bank of the river, and being flanked to the north by the great
watershed which now forms the boundary between Kalat and Persia. The
road was rough and the gradients of the successive spurs were steep, and water
was scarce and brackish even in the river bed. At Isfandak we found a clear
running karez with excellent water, and thenceforward, till our return journey
brought us again to the same encampment, we had no further difficulty about
water. Prom Isfandak the route carried us straight northward to the Bunsar,
the best known of all the passes across the Siahan. Considering the qualify
and configuration of the range which it crosses, the pass is an easy one. The
descent on the northern side was as easy as the ascent from the south, and we
passed at once from the barren wilderness of the southern Siahan slopes into the
green luxuriance of the Kalagan Valley.
29. Here were forts and villages with acres of rich cultivation, groves of
palm-trees, and orchards of mulberries, pomegranates and figs. It was a most
striking change.
30. As the Commissions progressed, Colonel Wahab and his survey party
followed the line of boundary, demarcating where necessary with rough cairns
of loose stones, which are entered in the description of boundary marks as
“pillars,” but which were merely erected in order to mark geographically fixed
points on the line. Prom the debouchment of the Kalagan river into the
Mashkel plain to Jalk is hut a day’s march, and at Jalk again we found
ourselves in a fertile oasis literally embedded in the gravelly clay hills that
border the plain. Pour or five square miles of dense palm-groves with
about a dozen villages scattered through them, lying deep in beds of cultiva
tion, and surrounded Joy orchards, constitute the district of Jalk. Through
the midst of the oasis runs an abundant supply of water drawn by karez
irom the western hills, which expands into grass swamps and canals as it
flows eastward and northward, and finally loses itself in the Mashkel
desert. Thirty or forty miles east of Jalk on the edge of the hamun
(which was nothing but a dry expanse, covered with salt efflorescence last