Daily Kennebec journal., 1911-08-02
DR.. PierCe'S Fayorite Prescription
LAND OF MYSTERY.
Railroad To Reveal the Unknown
Region of Mekran.

Region of Mekran.
The building of railroad ty the
British from Persia to Karachi across
Mekran may not of itself be a project
of Importance. Europe has offered
little opposition, and engineers say
the route persents few serious OBJ
stacles; but it brings the rest of the
world into contact with some of the
earliest scenes of eastern history and
opens a land of mystery of which
there have been only glimpses about
every thousand years.
Mekran is the coastal region of
Baluehistan and extends from India
to the Persian gulf. Sailors before
and since the voyage of AleXander's
admiral, Nearchus, have coasted
along it's white shores and found
themselves surrounded by spouting
whales such as the first map makers
delighted to picture. High popped
native crafts like ancient galleys car
rying pirate slave traders and gun
runners dodge into its shallow har-
, bors. British steamships sometimes
stop at one of its ports for cargo of
dates or rice for the Indian trade.
But sailors. never penetrate into the
range of yellow hills or cross the
sterile plain, the hottest land of all
Asia" where the sand rolls in waves
and floats in sitting clouds. Gases
are rare along the streams that flow
from these ridges; the country is
dry, weather. worn, desolate, Stunned
by man.
The few inhabitants are the fiot-
sam and ietsam of the civilizations
that have passed over it. They are
the wreckage that drifted into this
obscure world from the earliest
movements into and from India to
the first search of Europe for eastern
empires. The Portuguese that con-
quered Muscat and captured the is
lands of Ormuz and Kishm and found
ed colonies at Bander, Abbas and
Gwadur left their tribute of adVen-
turers, as did the Dutch French and
English that came after them. These
found here older people of whose orig
in all trace was lost, colonies of half
breed Arabs left by the decline of the
Arab dynasty of Sind, Mongols from
the time of Genghiz Khan, negroes de-
scended from medieval slaves and
| stragglers from every central Asian
| tribe.
Yet Mekran cannot always have
| been such dry, desolate land. Bur-
| led in the sands beneath some OF the
| little towns are the ruins of cities. At
one place an explorer found the walls
| of six towns that must at some time
have been places of some importance.
| In the hills above Gwadur are the re-
mains of great reservoir. Tombs
with fragments of pottery that no one
seems able to identify are often un-
! covered; many of the hills are closely
| covered with stone houses with dome
| shaped interiors. There are remains or
works of masonry that were great
dams for catching the waters of the
river al flood time. In arid deserts ex-
| plorers have found forests OF dead
| trees that have stood stark for cen
turies and on some of the hills ter
races that must some time have been
| in a high state of cultivation. No one
apparently is able to tell who built
| these cities and reservoirs cultivated
| the terraced hills. or were buried In
| the tombs The very reason why this
| land today is only a region OF great
heat. thirst and death is one of the
secrets of nature.
History gives but brief glimpses of
| this mysterious land. Cyrus is SAID
| TO have crossed Mekran in invading
| India 1t was the scene of Alexan-
| ders memorable retreat. Part OF his
| troops followed the coast and suffered
| greatly from heat and privation; an
other mart took a more northerly route
and Jared better. and third detach-
ment sailed along the coast in ships
| that Nearchus had build on the Indus.
The route of this march has been
| traced and from the Grecian story
| one can identify every cape and mar
| Dor as if il was written today we
know nothing more of Mekran until
the Arabs conquered the lower Indus,
more than 1000 years after Alexander 8
| tine. Then il was that caravans
passed over the country bearing the
goods of India to Bagdad and the
West. and that there We're oases ana
cities all the way. But the Arabs
power declined and again Mekran was
i'm darkness The empire searching
fleets of Europe stopped on its shore
but rever entered the uninviting land.
Then adventurous Englishmen carried
the telegraph line, that came up from
the sea at Jask, over the desert TO
Karachi, and recently Admiral Slade
men have penetrated it in their hunt
for gun runners.
From these brief glimpses 1t is eNl-
dent that the desolation and empu-
ness of Mekran are only a present
condition and that the proposed bfit-
ish road is but the line OF the aheleht
caravan route from the East 10 the
West the way of commerce TO Asia
before it took To the sea It's hnys-
teries may remain unsolved. but, IN
view of the present strife for land IN
the middle east the ooscuflty oi
Mekran is ended.-New York sun
BANDAGES THAT CHAFE.