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TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION E. 889 
the route from his own experiences. The same officer has made, moreover, very valu- 
able suggestions on the mode of reaching Shiraz from Bebehan. Comparing the 
obstacles presented in this direction with those apparent in the more northern 
tract of country, he writes :— 
‘I think the railway engineer would prefer to take the line from Shustar wd 
Bebehan to the Ardakhan Valley. He would find no stupendous obstacles this way, 
and would have wormed himself’ to the roof of Central Persia without crossing one 
of the ridges that would guard it; he would tap, too, its most fertile plains and 
include Shiraz. The 7,200 feet kotud that lies between Ardakhan and Shiraz has 
no difficulties or gradients that a “ Fairlie’s” engine, such as is used between Poti 
and Tiflis, would not surmount. Or I should recommend the trial of the valley of 
the Shapur river from Bushire to Nodun, where a tunnel would lead through to 
the river Shur or Fahliyun, which runs from Ardakhan.’ 
On the country east and south-east of Shiraz the reports of travellers are noted, 
and stress is laid upon the views of Mr. Preece of the Persian Telegraph, expressed 
in the following extract from his report of a journey through Dara) and Forg :— 
‘Should at any time the question of a railway to the Persian Gulf take tangible 
form, a careful survey of this route, I am convinced, will repay the projectors. As 
against the Shiréz-Bushire route, there can be no doubt of its greater adaptability 
. . . the engineering difficulties are nearly ni... . a railway along this route 
would tap a large grain-growing country, and would be easy of access to the inhabi- 
tants of Yezd and Kirman.’ 
An alternative route is also mentioned, running south of Mr. Preece’s, through 
Lar ; it is reported on by a late French traveller, M. Rochechouart, formerly Chargé 
d’Affaires at the Shah’s Court. 
A brief notice is given of Shustar, Shiréz, and Bandar-Abbas, and the lines 
of traffic leading to these places. The writer brings his paper to a conclusion by 
_ expressing his great faith in the drastic remedy of the iron rail and locomotive, to 
awaken a slumbering but active-minded people, for whom it would he a novelty 
of high price and usefulness. He does not, however, disguise the fact that the 
scheme of railway which he describes has not had its origin in the mere wish to 
benefit a particular nation, but rather in the intention of putting in a 900-mile link 
in the inevitable great line which will some day connect England with her Indian 
Empire, and which should be as readily available to passengers and goods as any of 
the more popular and successful lines at home. 
4. New Trade Routes into Persia. By H. F. B. Lrncu, 
This paper had as its object an attempt to review the commercial geography of 
Southern Persia from the standpoint of the writer's experience during recent 
travels. A twofold consideration at once presented itself: firstly, what was the 
physical configuration of the country between the Persian Gulf and the Persian 
plateau, and, secondly, how could we apply the results of such an inquiry to the 
benefit of commerce and of civilisation. Here an important element was intro- 
duced ; for, given that geography had long ago decided that the present main 
_ trade route was about the worst possible, and further, that she had, within recent 
years, added much positive information regarding better roads, there still remained 
_ the important questions, Might commerce enter by them, and, if allowed to enter, 
would she be starved or fostered ? This was the political element, and he would 
venture to offer a few remarks regarding it. The chief obstacles to the progress 
of commerce in Persia lay not only in the indifference of the Persian Government, 
but also in the apathy of the English people towards Persia and its polities. The 
English ‘people had the largest interest in the foreign commerce of that Power 
which was no distant neighbour of theirs in India; and, further, the value to 
them of its political stability was such as to merit not their apathy but their zeal. 
Stretching from the eastern borders of Turkey to the frontiers of Afghanistan and 
from the Transcaspian provinces of Russia to the Indian Ocean, Persia covered an 
“_ = oo square miles—a territory five times as large as that lie os 
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