zful stream, which
takes place about two miles north of the little town of Bandi-kir. Just
below that town the left branch, called at present Abi-Gargar, which
has made a considerable bend to the east, rejoins the main stream, which
thenceforth flows in a single channel. The course of the Kuran from its
source to its junction with the Dizful branch, including main windings,
is about 210 miles. The Dizful. branch rises from two sources, nearly a
degree apart, in lat. 33 deg. 30'. These streams run respectively south-east
and south-west, a distance of forty miles, to their junction near
Bahrein, whence their united waters flow in a tortuous course, with
a general direction of south, for above a hundred miles to the outer
barrier of Zagros, which they penetrate near the Diz fort, through a
succession of chasms and gorges. The course of the stream from this
point is south-west through the hills and across the plain, past Dizful,
to the place where it receives the Beladrud from the west, when it
changes and becomes first south and then southeast to its junction with
the Shuster river near Bandi-kir. The entire course of the Dizful stream
to this point is probably not less than 380 miles. Below Bandi-kir,
the Kuran, now become "a noble river, exceeding in size the Tigris and
Euphrates," meanders across the plain in a general direction of S.S.
W., past the towns of Uris, Ahwaz, and Ismaili, to Sablah, when it
turns more to the west, and passing Mohammerah, empties itself into the
Shat-el-Arab, about 22 miles below Busra. The entire course of the Kuran
from its most remote source, exclusive of the lesser windings, is not
less than 430 miles.

The Kerkhah (anciently the Choaspes) is formed by three streams of
almost equal magnitude, all of them rising in the most eastern portion
of the Zagros range. The central of the three flows from the southern
flank of Mount Elwand (Orontes), the mountain behind Hamadan (Ecbatana),
and receives on the right, after a course of about thirty miles, the
northern or Singur branch, and ten miles further on the southern or
Guran branch, which is known by the name of the Gamas-ab. The river
thus formed flows westward to Behistun, after which it bonds to the
south-west, and then to the south, receiving tributaries on both hands,
and winding among the mountains as far as the ruined city of Rudbar.
Here it bursts through the outer barrier of the great range, and,
receiving the large stream of the Kirri