If we view the physical aspect looking
north and north-west from Jacobabad, we notice a wide bay of plains
extending between the broken spur of the Sulimani, and a second
range of hills having a direction parallel to the outer range. This
plain is called the Kachi, extends in an even surface for 150 miles
from the Indus at Sukkur, and is bounded on the north by successive
spurs lying between the two great ranges. The Kachi, thus bounded by
barren hills on all sides but the south, is one of the hottest
regions in the world. Except where subject to inundations or within
reach of irrigation it is completely sterile--a hard clay surface
called _Pat_,--and this kind of country extends around to the east
of the spur of the Suliman into the Derajat country. Subject to
terrific heats and to a fiercely hot pestilential wind, the Kachi is
at times fatal even to the natives."
[Illustration: Entrance to the Bolan Pass, from Dadur.]
The range of mountains bounding the Kachi to the westward is a
continuous wall with imperceptible breaks only, and it bears
the local names of Gindari, Takari, and Kirthar. Through this
uniform rampart there are two notable rents or defiles, viz.
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