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Abstract

AN entertaining book of travel, but by no means an exploration of “Unexplored Báluchistán,” as is indeed sufficiently evident from the sub-title. Nevertheless, Mr. Floyer has investigated and partly solved some interesting geographical questions in the little-known province of Bashkurd (Bashakard), on the Perso-Mekrán frontier, which he visited on two separate occasions during the years 1876–7. This region, which had been merely skirted by Goldsmid, Lovett, Ewen Smith, St. John, and others connected with the Perso-Balúch Boundary Commission of 1872, and with the development of telegraphy in Persia and Mekrán in 1873–4, was ascertained to comprise six separate territories or districts — Gavr and Parment in the east, Jagda in the west, Marz and Pizgh north and south respectively, and Daroserd with the capital, Angurhán, in the centre. The town, which appears to be a place of great natural strength, was found to lie in 26° 40′ N. lat., 57° 55′ E. long., or about thirty miles from the position assigned to it on Major St. John's map. The Apben-i-Band range, between Daroserd and. Pizgh, was crossed near its western extremity, and ascertained to run east and west under 26° 30′ N., at a mean elevation of 3600 feet, the culminating point of the whole province being apparently the Gu-Koh peak (6,400 feet) in the Parment district.

Unexplored Báluchistán: a Survey of a Route through Mekrán, Bashkurd, Persia, Turkistan, and Turkey.

By Ernest A. Floyer. (London: Griffith and Farran, 1882.)