Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 18.djvu/649

BOUNDARIES.] PERSIA Siy;ih Kuli, or " Black Hill," on the border of the district of Nehbandan. Here begins the line of frontier determined by the Sistan arbitration of 1872. The British commis sioner (Sir F. Goldsmid) decided that an oblique line drawn from the Siyah Kuh to the southern limit of the reedy marsh called " Naizar," and prolonged to the main outlet of the Helmand, would fairly separate and dis tinguish the possessions of the two states respectively in the north of Sistan. On the east the bed of the Helmand itself would be the boundary up to Kuhak, where was the large " band " or dam which diverted the waters of the river into the more fertile lands to the west. From Kuhak a line south-west to the Kuh Malik Siyah completed the delimitation by leaving the two banks of the Helmand in the hands of the Afghans, and placing a large tract of partly desert and partly inundated country between the litigants. Subsequent surveys by Sir Charles Macgregor have thrown new light upon the large and little-populated tract to the far south of Sistan, and are suggestive of an Afghan-Baluch as well as of a Perso-Afghan frontier. In whatever light it be regarded, the line of Persian frontier from the Kuh Malik Siyah to the sea rather con cerns Baluchistan than Afghanistan ; but, though roughly delineated by St John and Macgregor, it cannot be described with scientific accuracy until it reaches the district of Jalk, or after a south-easterly passage of 170 miles through the deserts of Pir Kaisar and the Mashkel or Mashkid, names used as the more likely to identify the region traversed. From Jalk the Perso-Kelat boundary begins, as determined by Major-General Goldsmid, the British commissioner in 1871, and verified in the subsequent year by Captain (now Sir Oliver) St John, R.E. The state of Kelat (Khelat), it should be explained, is now that of western Baluchistan, the western half of that country having become annexed to Persia by a process of gradual encroachment. It was this action of Persia, and the disquiet and mischief which it occa sioned in Makran and other parts of Baluch and Brahui territory, that brought about the British mediation. From Jalk to the sea is about 150 miles as the crow flies. By the line laid clown it is very much farther, as the nature of the country and of the claims of the con tending parties did not admit of other than a tortuous course. The small district of Kuhak, lying south-east of Jalk, should, in a geographical sense, have been included among the lands on the Persian side, but the evidence of right and possession was insufficient to warrant its separa tion from Kelat, and, whatever may have been its subse quent fate, it Avas not made over to the shah s governors by the original decision, which was expressed in the following terms : "The territory of Kelat is bounded to the west by the large Persian district of Dizak, composed of many delis or minor districts, those on the frontier being Jalk and Kalagan. Below these two last- named is Kuhak, including Kuuarbasta and Isfandar. This small district belongs to the Naushirwanis, and, as its chief pays no tribute, cannot be included among the conquests of Persia. It therefore remains as a tract of country within the Kelat frontier. Adjoining Kuhak to the east is the district of Panjgur, with Parum and other dependencies, which are in the possession of Kelat ; while on the Persian side Bampusht is the frontier possession. Below Panjgur the frontier possessions of Kelat to the sea are Bulaida, including Zamran and other dependencies, Maud, and Dasht. Within the Persian line of frontier are the villages or tracts belonging to Sarbaz and Balm Dastiari. The boundary of Dasht is marked by a line drawn through the Drabol hill, situated between the rivers Balm and Dasht, to the sea, in the bay of Gwatar." The boundaries of the frontier districts or village-lands named are well known, and may be distinguished by mountains, hills, hillocks, rivers, streams, or cultivation. In some places desert tracts occur which can offer no in ducement for encroachment on either side, but through which a line may at any time be declared, if necessary, both by geographical computation and the erection of pillars. The frontiers of Persia on the west, north, and east have Southern now been described. The southern, or more strictly the coast- south-western merging into the southern boundary, is the me< coast-line of the Persian Gulf and Arabian Ocean. This extends from the Khor Abdullah west to the port of Gwatar east, and may be held to be comprised between the meridians 49 and 61 30 E. long. It will be observed that the Caspian Sea boundary, on the immediate north of Persia, is only two-fifths of this extent. On the Persian shores of the gulf are the ports of Bushahr (Bushire), Lingah, and Bandar- Abbas, with the islands of Karag, Shaikh Sh ab, Hindarabi, Kais, Kishm, Hangam, Hormuz (Ormus), and Larak, of which the last four are habitually held in lease by the imam of Maskat (Muscat). On the Perso-Baluch coast are the telegraph stations of Jask and the quasi-ports of Charbar (or Chahbar) and Gwatar. In some parts of the generally dry and barren coast are ranges of rugged mountains, sometimes rising to a very considerable height. Physical Geography. Major (now Sir Oliver) St John, R.E., is perhaps the latest recognized authority on the physical characteristics of the large extent of country comprised within the boundaries just described. He has himself surveyed or travelled over no insignificant portion, and has carefully studied the labours of his colleagues and predecessors in a similar field. In the following adapta tion of that officer s account of its orography and hydro graphy attention has been given to the results of independ ent observation, as well as to those theories put forward by other travellers which seem to merit acceptance. Persia that is, modern Persia occupies the western and larger half of the great Iranian plateau which, rising to a height of from 4000 to 8000 feet between the valleys of the Indus and Tigris, covers in round numbers more than a million square miles. Taking the Ivuren Dagh and Kopet Dagh to form the northern scarp of this plateau east of the Caspian, we find a prolongation of it in the highlands north of the political frontier on the Arras, and even in the Caucasus itself. In St John s own words : " The Caucasian provinces of Russia are but an excrescence of the great elevated mass to the south-east ; differing from it only in characteristics produced by the more bounteous rainfall which has scooped out the valleys to a greater depth." On the north-west Persia is united by the high lands of Armenia to the mountains of Asia Minor ; on the north-east the Paropanisus and Hindu Kush connect it with the Himalayas of ancient India. The lines of boundary on the western and eastern faces are to be traced amid high ranges of mountains broken here and there by deserts and valleys. These ranges lie for the most part north west and south-east, as do those in the interior, with a marked exception between Tehran (Teheran) and Bujnurd, and in the more recently acquired territory of Baluchistan, where they lie rather north-east and south-west, or, in the latter case, sometimes east and west. The real lowlands are the tracts near the sea-coast belonging to the forest- clad provinces of the Caspian in the north and the shores of the Persian Gulf below Basrah and elsewhere. With regard to the elevation of the Persian mountains, Moun- the Russian Caspian survey gives to the highest, Damavand, tains. 18,600 feet, and to Mount Savalan in Adarbaijan (Azer- bijan) 14,000. St John estimates the Kuh Hazar and summits of the Jamal Bariz in the province of Karman (Kirman) at a greater figure than the last, but he believes the chain of the Kuh Dinar snow-clad mountains in Fars, visible from the sea at a distance of 130 miles, and over ranges known to be 10,000 feet high to present the highest continuous range in Persia. To the Kurii range, between Ispahan and Kashan, he gives an elevation of above 11,000 feet, and notes the absence of prominent spurs in all ranges