stan"--where lies Quetta. All
Baluchistan has now been surveyed. From the great Indus series of triangles
bases have been selected at intervals which have supported minor chains of
triangulation reaching into the heart of the country. These again have been
connected by links of more or less regularity, so that, if the Baluchistan
triangulation lacks the rigid accuracy of a "first [v.03 p.0291] class"
system, it at least supports good topography on geographical scales.

[Sidenote: Northern.]

From Domandi, at the junction of the Gomal and Kundar rivers, the boundary
between Baluchistan and Afghanistan follows the Kundar stream for about 40
m. to the south-west. It then leaves the river and diverges northwards, so
as to include a section of the plain country stretching away towards Lake
Ab-i-Istada, before returning to the skirts of the hills. After about 100
m. of this divergence it strikes the Kadanai river, turning the northern
spurs of the Toba plateau (the base of the Kwaja Amran (Kojak) Range), and
winds through the open plains west of the Kojak. Here, however, the
boundary does not follow the river. It deserts it for the western edge of
the Toba plateau (8000 ft. high at this point), till it nears the little
railway station of New Chaman. It then descends to the plains, returns
again to the hills 40 m. south of Chaman, and thenceforward is defined by
hill ranges southwards to Nushki. The eastern boundary of this northern
section of Baluchistan is the "red line" at the foot of the frontier hills,
which defines the border of British India. This part of Baluchistan thus
presents a buffer system of independent tribes between the British frontier
and Afghanistan. But the independence of the Pathan people south of the
Gomal is not as the independence of the Pathans (Waziris, Afridis, &c.) who
live north of it. It is true that the Indian government interferes as
little with the internal jurisdiction of the tribal chiefs amongst the
Pathans of the Suliman Range as it does with that of the northern chiefs;
but the occupation of a line of posts on the Zhob river, which flanks that
range almost from end to end on the west, places the doors of communication
with Afghanistan in British hands, and gives command of their hills. It
thus tends to the maintenance of peace and order on the southern frontier
to a degree that does not exist in the north.

The central range of the Suliman hills is the dominant feature in the
geography