They Are Small
And Better Looking Than Most; Nor Do Their Coats Present So Much The
Appearance Of A "Doormat With The Mange," As Those Of The Animals Of
Other Countries.
We had as yet passed but two villages - three or four
low shapeless huts, almost hidden in rock and
Scrub by the side of
the caravan-track, which, as far as Beila, is pretty clearly defined.
There had been nothing else to break the dull, dead monotony of sand
and swamp, not a sign of human life, and but one well (at Outhal) of
rather brackish water.
On the second day one of the escort had pointed out a dry rocky bed
as the river Purali, which is one of the largest in Baluchistan, but,
like all the others, quite dry the greater portion of the year. There
are no permanent rivers in this country. To this fact is perhaps due
the slight knowledge obtained up to the present time of the interior,
where arid sandy deserts, dangerous alike to native or European
travellers, are the rule, and cover those large open spaces marked
upon maps as "unexplored." Notwithstanding the great width of the bed
of the Purali river in many places, it has no regular outlet into the
sea. Its waters, when in flood from rainfall, lose themselves in
the level plains in a chain of lagoons or swamps. Some of these are
several miles in length, but decrease considerably in the dry season,
when the water becomes salt.
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