96 TOPOGRAPHICAL SURVEYS. 



the passes is tolerably elevated, and the surveyors' camps were often 

 over 5,000 feet, but on the "whole the country was easy to survey. 

 The Kachi plain was the only tract differing essentially from this 

 description, and that corresponds more in climate and general 

 conditions to the adjacent Sind plain. 



The party sustained a loss in the death of Mr. Gr. R. Copping, a 

 young surveyor of great promise, who had served six years with the 

 party. He was suddenly taken ill, apparently with fever, in one of 

 the most desolate spots on the frontier, and was carried by his 

 khalassies into Sibi to die. 



An interesting description of the Marri country, with its three 

 settlements, Kahan, Mamand, and Kolu, as well as of the Kachi and 

 Harnai valley, was supplied by Captain Wahab, and will be found 

 in the Appendix to the Report of the Surveyor General for 1884-85.* 



During the next season the command devolved on Colonel Wilmer 

 and the operations consisted almost entirely of special surveys for 

 military purposes, viz. : — (i.) A survey on the 2-inch scale of the 

 Khwaja-Amran range, towards Kandahar; (ii.) A survey on the 

 2-inch scale of the country surrounding Quetta ; (iii.) An explora- 

 tion of the routes between Registan and the Baluchistan frontier. 



The triangulation in advance of the detail operations of the season 

 was carried by Mr. Claudius southwards from Gulistan and generally 

 along the meridian of 66° over Southern Pishin, the fertile valley of 

 Shorawak, and the Shorarud hills. This triangulation connected the 

 Kandahar, Khelat, and south-west Baluchistan Series, and furnished 

 good bases for further extension westwards. Mr. Claudius wrote an 

 interesting description of the country traversed, which has been 

 printed separately. 



The explorations under (iii.) were carried out by Sub-Surveyors 

 Ahmed Ali and Sheikh Mohidin. The former started from Nushki, 

 succeeded in making a reconnaissance survey with the plane-table of 

 nearly 20,000 square miles, mostly on the J-inch scale. His explora- 

 tion extended up to the Persian frontier, embracing country well to 

 the north and south of the route followed by the Boundary Com- 

 mission in 1884, including 3G0 miles of the course of the Helmund 

 river, with its numerous villages on both banks. The country 

 explored by Sheikh Mohidin was the portion of Registan immediately 

 west of the Khwaja-Amran range. His plane-tabling covered an 



