Reports and Correspondence Relating to Persia, Including Trade and Trade Routes in Persia [‎57v] (114/252)

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as far as possible by short branches and roads to points where danger threatens,
so that through communications should be as little liable to interruption as the
nature of things will permit. *
It should not be forgotten, however, that one of the objects of a line
through Makran is to control the tribes within our border, and in this connec
tion the Pasni alignment may claim some advantage, as it encloses a larger
area of Baluchistan. I may, therefore, state that, with the exception of the
Kech valley (undoubtedly the richest part of Makran), which I propose dealing
with by a branch, the Karachi alignment embraces every district of importance
in the country. Even the Pasni-Turbat line would require a branch about 40
miles long to Tump in order to command the centre of disturbance and to tap
the trade of the valley, as Turbat is quite at its eastern extremity. It may be
urged that the Karachi alignment is faulty, as it leaves the tract between
Kolwa and the sea unguarded ; and Alexander the Great’s march along the coast
may be quoted as showing the possible danger of neglecting this strip. This
objection is easily answered. Alexander had command of the sea, and yet
his army was only rescued from starvation by opportune supplies from
Kandahar or Seistan. I do not think any invader would be so foolish and mis
guided as to enter that almost waterless waste of ravines and mountain. It
would only be to die of starvation and thirst, or to surrender to our forces
operating from the railway to the north. A good road direct from Kolwa to
Pasni would be sufficient protection for this strip.
General description of country .—The question of the termini having now
been disposed of, and my reasons for preferring Karachi stated at length, a brief
general description of the country between Kondi and the sea appears
desirable, as without it details of the proposed alignment will scarcely
be intelligible. Western Baluchistan from Kondi southwards may be divided
into two belts of markedly different characteristics; the northern and
narrower being plain and glacis, and the southern a series of mountain
ranges 150 miles in width. The former, which terminates in a line
drawn from the debouchement of the Mashkhel river from the hills,
through Palantak and Washuk, is the familiar waste of sand and stones.
Its main feature is the Mashkhel Hamun, an ancient lake into which the
rainfall of the surrounding country once drained, but whose waters now exist
mainly in the imagination of the cartographer. Its level above the sea is only
1,000 feet, and the climate is said to be exceedingly hot in summer. A con
siderable nomad population of camel-graziers and shepherds centres round the
Hamun, and Ladgasht, a village on its borders, has fairly extensive date groves.
A little land is cultivated near Rajib with the hood waters of the Mashkhel
river.
Prom Ladgasht caravan roads lead in every direction, to Jalk and Ladis,
important centres in Persia, to the Helmund, Dalbandin, Kharan, and Panjgur.
The Persian frontier is only a few miles off, and bends here from north-west to
north.
Erom the Hamun we ascend over plain and gradually steepening glacis
till we meet the northern limit of the Makran ranges. Thence°to the
coast three wide ranges intervene, separated by the two (narrow valleys of
Rakshan-Panjgur and Kech-Kolwa. Their peaks exceed 5,000 feet, and their
general elevation above the central valleys is from 2,000 to 3,000 feet.
These mountains form the westerly continuation of the Khwaja Amran
range, and jut out from its central axis below Nushki like the head of
a hockey stick from its handle. Their geological formation is the same, grey
blue slaty shales with bands of calcareous sandstone. The appearance and
physical^ features of this tract are similar to those we are familiar with at
the Khojak. The mountains are steep without being precipitous, their slopes
are sound and free from slips, the strata are wonderfully contorted, and for
the most part set on edge.
Near the higher peaks and in deep gorges the shales have a very pronounced
slaty fracture, while the proportion of rock is high. As we near the coast the
bands of rock get thinner and softer, and the slaty fracture disappears. The
shales degenerate into clays, and the hills, in spite of their grey blue tin^e,