plain--Yadgar--Padag--Beluch huts--Fierce wind--Plants--Kuchaki
chah--Another double march--Mall--Two tracks--Peculiar cracks--A
gigantic geological fault--An old Beluch fort--Nushki.

Captain Webb-Ware having most kindly arranged to "dak" camels for me, I
was enabled to remain here one day by sending my own camels with loads
ahead, I proposing to catch them up by going three marches on January
27th. The distance was 54 miles 980 yards, and I covered it in nine
hours, which was quite good going.

"Sand mounts and high hill ranges were to the north and south, and the
track lay east-north-east (70 deg. b.m.) with parallel sand ridges to the
north. Three long sand banks from 30 to 50 feet high, facing north,
accumulated by wind coming through gaps in the hills. To south, high
mountains as one approaches Karodak."

That is the only entry I find in my note-book for the march between
Dalbandin and Karodak (16 miles 380 yards). Here the camel that had been
sent ahead for me to ride to the next post-house had unluckily bolted,
and after wasting nearly an hour the Beluch were unable to capture him. I
bade good-bye to the _jemadar_ and his men, who had politely escorted me
thus far, and had to continue upon the same camel.

At Karodak (3,220 feet) there was a small _thana_ surrounded by sand
hills, with high tamarisks and good grazing for camels, but the water of
the wells was salt.

We trotted along in a terrific wind storm, with yellowish dust obscuring
everything like a fog, and went over numerous big stretches of mud and
salt, cracked by the sun in semicircles like the scales of a fish. Low
hills could now be perceived to north, south and east, when the wind
slightly abated and the dust settled down.

After crossing a sand ridge extending from north to south, we still going
east-north-east (70 deg. b.m.), another large salt plain disclosed itself
before us. The old track went from this point towards the south, but the
new one was in a perfectly straight line. For the first time since
entering Beluchistan one began to see some little vegetation on the hill
sides, and a few high tamarisks could be noticed in the plain itself.

At Yadgar (altitude 3,100 feet) we found a four-towered _thana_, with one
_duffadar_, four sepoys, five _mari_ camels, and three wells of good
water, as well as a new bungalow, but I only remained just a few minutes
to change my belongings from Captain Webb-Ware's camel to mine, which