"The western frontier of India is, for a length of 600 miles,
bounded by Biluchistan and territories inhabited by Biluch tribes,
and for 300 miles Biluch country intervenes between our border and
Afghanistan. The plains of the Punjab and Sind run along the
boundary of Biluchistan, and at a distance of from 25 to 50 miles
the Indus pursues a course, as far down as Mithunkot, from north to
south, and then winds south-west through a country similar to that
of Egypt. A belt of cultivation and beyond that the desert . . .
this line of hills (the Eastern Sulimani) extends as a continuous
rampart with the plains running up to the foot of the range, and
having an elevation of 11,000 feet at the Tukl-i-Suliman, and of
7,400 near Fort Munro (opposite Dera-Ghazi-Khan), gradually
diminishes in height and dwindles away till it is lost in the plains
near Kusmore, at a point 12 miles from the Indus. The strip of
low-land country on the west bank of the Indus up to the foot of
the hills is called the _Derajat_. It is cut up and broken by
torrents, the beds of which are generally dry wastes, and the
country is, except at a few places where permanent water is found,
altogether sterile and hot.
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