mages,
in spite of its dangerous approach. All this country, so far, is
independent Baluchistan within the jurisdiction of the Baluchistan Agency,
with the exception of certain clans of the Sheranis on the eastern slopes
of the Takht-i-Suliman, north of the Vihowa, who are under the North-West
Frontier Province administration. Wedged in between the railway and the
Indus, but still north of the railway, is a curious mass of rough mountain
country, which forms the southern abutment of the Suliman system. The
strike of the main ridges forming that system is almost due north and south
till it touches 30deg N. lat. Here it assumes a westerly curve, till it
points north-west, and finally merges into the broad band of mountains
which hedge in the Quetta and Pishin uplands on the north and east.

At this point, as might be expected, are some of the grandest peaks and
precipices in Baluchistan. Khalifat on the east of Quetta, flanking the
Harnai loop of the Sind-Pishin railway; Takatu to the north; Chahiltan
(Chiltan) on the south-west; and the great square-headed Murdar to the
south--all overlook the pretty cantonment from heights which range from
10,500 to 11,500 ft. Lying in the midst of them, on an open plain formed by
the high-level tributaries of the Lora (which have also raised the Pishin
valley to the north), 5500 ft. above the sea, is Quetta. The mass of
twisted flexures, the curved wrinkles that end the Suliman system, is
occupied by true Baluchis, the Marri and Bugti sections of the great Rind
confederation of tribes owning an Arabic origin. There are no Pathans here.
To the north of them are the Bozdars, another Rind clan; and these Rind
tribes form the exception to the general rule of Pathan occupation of
northern Baluchistan. Amongst the Pathans, the Kakars and Dumars of Pishin,
with the Mando Khel of Zhob, are the most prominent tribal divisions.

[Sidenote: Central.]

The curved recession of the Suliman Ranges to the north-west leaves a space
of flat alluvial desert to the south, which forms a sort of inlet or bay
striking into the Baluchistan mountain system. The point of this desert
inlet receives the drainage of two local basins, the Bolan and the Nari.
Both drain south-eastwards from the central Quetta-Pishin plateau and both
have served for railway alignment. Being fed by tributaries which for the
most part drain narrow valleys where gradual denudation has washed bare the
flat-backed slopes of limestone rid