TOPOGRAPHICAL SURVEYS. 95 



Sir R. Sandenian's political mission to the distant town of Kharan 

 in the Baluchistan desert in November 1883 afforded an opportunity 

 for fixing the position of an outlying point of some importance in its 

 relation to the Indian western frontier. The mission started from 

 Khelat in November 1S83. Lieutenant Talbot, who, with Lieutenant 

 Wahab, was attached as surveyor to the party, carried his triangula- 

 tion first southerly and then south-westerly, while Lieutenant "Wahab 

 worked at first westerly and then in a southerly direction. They 

 met again at Garok, one march eastward of Kharan. Beyond the 

 latter place Lieutenant Talbot extended the tri angulation to Washuk, 

 but from thence to Panjgur* the haze made it difficult to see objects 

 five miles off, and a gap of - 130 miles occurred in the triangles. 

 Through the plane-tabling, however, a satisfactory junction was 

 effected. 



The requirements of the Afghan Boundary Commission, which 

 was being organized at that time and to which Major Holdich and 

 Lieutenant Talbot were attached, occasioned a considerable reduction 

 in the personnel of the Baluchistan party in 1884-85, in addition 

 to which Lieutenant Wahab, Mr. Scott, and Yusuf Sharif, who had 

 been attached to the Zhob Valley expedition, did not return till the 

 17th December 1884. Mr. Claudius laid out a series of triangles 

 45 miles in length closing on stations of the Baluchistan Survey 

 east of Khelat, and Yusuf Sharif established a connexion with the 

 Zhob expedition triangulation and the G.T.S. points fixed from the 

 Great Indus Series on the Suliman range. The out-turn of topo- 

 graphy included an important bit of -hitherto unexplored country 

 stretching from the lower part of the Harnai valley northwards, 

 and the survey proved of great value in determining the best route 

 for the railway through this difficult country. Portions of the 

 Bugti country, the Derajat frontier, the Kachi plain around 

 Gandava, and the hilly country to the west were also surveyed in 

 detail. Generally speaking, the operations of the party were 

 extended over a very wide area of country, from the Suliman range 

 on the east to the Khelat hills on the west, consisting for the most 

 part of barren rocky hills and equally barren valleys sparsely popu- 

 lated by Baluch and Pathan tribes. Most of the ground west of 



* There is a good deal of information about Panjgur and the Khan of Kharan in the 

 late Sir Charles Macgregor's "Wanderings in Balochistan" (Allen & Co.), 1882. 

 Panjgur -was also visited by Sir Robert Sandeman in 1890-91, in his exploration of 

 the old hqfila route between Lus Beyla and Southern Persia. 



