186 BOTANY OF BA LUCH- AFGHAN BOUNDARY COMMISSION, 1 896. 
by the Commission on its return march, belongs to Baluchistan. 
The country from Nushki onwards to Robat is not absolutely 
barren ; about Lijji-Karez, where there is a stream, and round 
Chageh, where there are wells, there is indeed a fair amount of 
vegetation. No cultivation was seen at either place though there 
is said to be a little cultivation round Chageh fort. 
At Robat itself, which is situated near the Koh MaUk-Dokhand 
and is about midway between Quetta and the Persian frontier 
there is a small stream ; here the main camp of the Commission 
remained for two months. There is said to be some cultivation at 
this point, but none was seen. 
There is another Rabat (the name means simply outpost at> 
the foot of the Koh^i-Malik Siah where the two countries meet 
Persia ; here there is a little cultivation of wheat and barley. 
Between the two Robats, a distance of 270 miles, water — -nearly 
always saline — was only obtained in seven places. The country tra- 
versed was a desert composed of alternating sand hills and gravel- 
plains with hardly a trace of vegetation. The line of march skirted 
the bases of successive mountain ranges running' up to 5,000 feet, as 
barren and desolate as the desert itself, of which they form the 
southern boundary. The general elevation of the line of march was 
about 3,000 feet. 
The water-supply consisted of springs or wells situated a few 
miles off the line of march up gorges in these mountains, — the desert 
itself being waterless except for the large salt lake known as the 
Gaud-i-Zirreh and a smaller salt lake in the bed of the Shelag ^iver 
at Godir-i-Shah. The Gaud-i-Zirreh is an overflow of the Helmund 
rendered salt by continued evaporalfon ; the last flood sufficient 
to cause an overflow occurred in 1884, but the lake is still of consider- 
able size. 
During the first part of the Mission in • February while among 
the mountains of the Khwaja Amran and Sarlat ranges, the cold 
was intense, the minimum thermometer indicating 15 5° Eahr. 
below freezing point — the soda \ter carried by the Mission being 
frozen ;• snow and hail fell frequently. In April and May the heat 
was just as intense as the cold had previously been'. The maximum 
shade temperature reached 115° Fahr., and the solar radiation 
thermometer frequently reached 205® Fahr., the highest temper- 
ature the instrument was capable of recording. Violent dust - or 
sand storms occurred almost daily. The dryness of the atmosphere 
was great, the difference between the dry - and wet-bulb thermometers 
varying from 30° up to 40® 
