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ARMENIA AND THE NEAR EAST
202
The Marshes.
In brilliant summer weather on the morning of Sunday,
June 28th, we motored in three cars from Erivan across the
Zanga Valley, by the same beautiful road as before, through
all the gardens to the west and past Echmiadzin, then south
over the plain to the marshy country near the Arax, of which
we had had a fleeting view the day after we arrived.
This marshy land stretches along the Kara-su. The river
in question has its source in some springs which rise on the
plain somewhere east of Sardarabad, and must consist of
subterranean water from the slopes of Mount Alagoz. After
joining the Abaran-su, the Kara-su flows over the plain in
a south-westerly direction approximately parallel to the Arax,
until it runs into the latter. It is chiefly on the right side of
the Kara-su, and between that river and the Arax, that the
land is so marshy.
It seemed as if this country could be drained fairly easily,
as it has a drop of several metres both to the Kara-su and to
the Arax, so that a network of dykes and ditches can be
ploughed in it, sloping down to these rivers, which will serve
as natural canals to carry off the water. Much can be done,
too, by clearing away the sedge which clogs the river and its
branches, hindering the free flow of the water.
On the other hand, it may be more difficult to get the water
needed for irrigation. The Kara-su has more than enough
for the purpose, but is lower than the plain ; and its sources
are also too low down. The Abaran-su, which flows into
it, carries too little water, and what there is has to be used for
irrigation farther up. The only way to use the water from
the Kara-su would be by continuously pumping it up three
or four metres higher, which would make the irrigation
rather more costly. And, as we have seen, its clear spring
water is not so useful for irrigation as the brown muddy
water of the Arax.
It would, therefore, be easier and better to bring water
either from the Little Sardarabad Canal which irrigates the
Arax plain on the west, or from the projected western Zanga
canal to North-west Kirr, which is not very far north of these
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