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'Military Report of the Nushki-Chagai-Western Sinjarani Country' [‎10r] (24/302)

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The record is made up of 1 volume (147 folios). It was created in 1904. It was written in English. The original is part of the British Library: India Office The department of the British Government to which the Government of India reported between 1858 and 1947. The successor to the Court of Directors. Records and Private Papers Documents collected in a private capacity. .

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7
)r igin
t two
•efore
mged
unja*
; not
ically
pect-
?eo-
after
o the
, and
in a
,v of
ards,
as is
ound
Kai
nate
jhief
ns.
nialj
ater
the
>nly
and
tern
ahi-
■g.i.
irri-
of
un-
ort.
ain
ith
by
evaporation. Water is said to lie over the hamun for the three
winter months, and for one mouth subsequently the hamun is im
passable During the remaining eight months the direct road across
it is the one generally used, and is as good going as any macadam
ised road.
All the roads across the hamun are impracticable for animals,
except in dry weather. Any water got by digging would probably
he salt. A strip of good grass, 2 miles wide, lines the western
edge of the hamun.
From the east this hamun receives two rivers, the Kulawo and
the Lora; on the west it receives the drainage of a portion of the
Malik Naru range which flows into it by a large number of small
ravines.
The only river deserving of description here is the Lora river
to which the flooding of the hamnn is due.
The Lora river drains the whole country between the Khwaja The Lora
Amran, including the Sarlat, and the watershed of the Indus, as river,
far south as some 20 miles beyond Kalat. Some of its chief tribu
taries are the Shal Lora, the Kakar Lora, the Pishin Lora, the
Surkhab, the Badezai Chur, the Dori Nala, and the Shora Rud.
The latter brings with it the whole of the drainage of Kalat,
M ungachar, Mastung, Gurgina, and Kardayap. After passing
through the Aliahu gorge and sweeping round the spurs of the Sar-
lat range the valley of the Lora is wide and open and presents many
spots fit for encampment. After the junction of the Tang stream
the river, shut in between the Khwaja Amran and Sarlat ranges,
runs for fully 16 miles through an extremely narrow and tortuous
delile, of an average width of 100 yards. After this gorge and
the ruined fort of Mir Alam are passed, the country gr. dually be
comes more open, until near the hamlet of Fir Muhammad karez
the river finally debouches on to the plain of Shorawak. There is a
crossing to Pir Muhammad karez near the debouchure, and others
opposite the villages of Putla Khan, Zabardast, and Mini Khan,
good camel tracks, but they would require labour to make them
fit for the passage of artillery. After passing Mandozai the Lora
bends to the south, and, where crossed by the Nushki road (Routes in
Northern Baluchistan, No. 142), 3 miles south of Saiad Bus, thebei
is only 60 yards wide and about 15 feet deep, the hanks are alternately
scarped and shelving, and, when the bed is dry, artillery can cross
without difficulty ; but if any water is running, the ford approaches
a quicksand. If in the least wet, brushwood should be cut from the
hanks and laid down the whole way across, to form a roadway for
animals. A quantity should also be kept ready to fill up as fast as
the roadway is trodden under.
Floods run down as rapidly as they rise, and can seldom stop
the passage of troops at regular crossing places; but it is unsafe to
take auimals into the Lora defiles if the weather be at all unset
tled.
The water of the Lora is slightly saline, but quite drinkable,
and not unwholesome if taken for a few days only.
The Hamun-i-Mashkel in Western Sinjarani covers about The Hamun-i-
500 square miles. Mashkel.

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Content

A report, marked as secret, on the area of Nushki, Chagai, and Western Sinjarani. The report was compiled in the Intelligence Branch, Quarter Master General's Department. The report was commenced in 1897 by Captain R E Roome, 6th Bombay Cavalry (Jacob's Horse), and revised and completed by Major W C Walton, 104th Wellesley's Rifles, Deputy Assistant Quarter Master General in 1903. It was printed at the Government Central Printing Office, Simla, in 1904.

The report includes a preface by Colonel John E Nixon, Assistant Quarter Master General, Intelligence Branch (folio 5) and a glossary of vernacular terms used (folio 6). The main body of the report contains chapters on geography, communications, fortified posts and forts, climate, sanitation, resources, ethnography, history, administration, and military strength.

The second part of the report includes a gazetteer of topographical and ethnographic information (folios 36-127) and appendices covering wells, canals, and meteorology, and including a report on the signalling stations of the Dalbandin-Robat line, with sketches (folios 131-147).

The volume includes the following maps:

  • Map of Southern Baluchistan (folio 2)
  • Sketch Map of Signalling Line from Dalbandin to Robat (folio 148)
  • Map of Persian Seistan [Sistan] Cultivated Area (folio 149).
Extent and format
1 volume (147 folios)
Arrangement

The volume includes a table of contents (folios 5-6) with reference to the original pagination.

Physical characteristics

Foliation: the foliation sequence (used for referencing) commences at the front cover with 1, and terminates at the inside back cover with 149; these numbers are written in pencil, are circled, and are located in the top right corner of the recto The front of a sheet of paper or leaf, often abbreviated to 'r'. side of each folio.

Written in
English in Latin script
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'Military Report of the Nushki-Chagai-Western Sinjarani Country' [‎10r] (24/302), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F111/386, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100076627109.0x000019> [accessed 29 March 2024]

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