The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1935-08-08

often the native cultivators depend up
on floods TO water and fertilize their
| soil.
Along the coast hundreds Of small,
clumsy fishing boats operate in the
| Arabian sea fisheries. The fish are
sailed and form one of the leading
articles Of Kalat commerce.
There are no organized industries
in the state. Every native woman Is
| an expert with the needle and she
makes all the family clothing. Wool
and goat hair from domestic animals
| are her working materials and what
she does not use finds its way 70
PasnI, the leading Kalat port, destined
| to foreign markets. A peep through
the door of a native hut may also re-
veal pottery factory, but only small
| quantity of the homemade product is
sold beyond the Kalat borders.
Just across the Baluchistan border,
in the province of Sind, is the seaport
Of Karachi which has been crowded
with refugees from the earthquake dis
| tricts. Like Marseilles, near the mouth
of the Rhone, and Alexandria, near the
| mouth Of the Nile, Karachi is of a
| great river, but not on it. 1t is just
| off the delta Of the Indus; but its i'm
portance is largely a gift from that
stream, whose shifting alluyium has
| swallowed up its rivals.
Tatta, an old capital of Sind, as
| karachi is today, was on a deep-water
| branch of the Indus a short distance
above its mouth. 1t iOurished until
| the river left it high and dry. Shah
another Indus branch, could, like New
| Orleans, be reached by deep-draught
men-of-war. But about 1725 Shahban-
dar also became silted up and is now
only an inland village. Common sense
| dictated the choice Of a port outside
the shifting delta, and Karachi, in a
sheltered bay a short distance to the
west, began TO grow in Importance.
Karachi Once a Shaving Center.
Karachi's chief product" of import
| and export had been Abyssinian slaves
brought by Arab bOatmen from Masqat
| Since British control came TO north
western India, Karachi's hinterland has
been greatly developed through i'm
proved irrigation methods, and a swell
| ing stream Of agricultural and other
products has flowed to the port. After
a railway was built TO tap the Punjab's
wheat fields, Karachi became India's
greatest grain port. In population the
town has jumped from less than 10000
before the British came, TO about 263,-
| 600 today.
Though Karachi has a huge and rich
| land TO draw from, its immediate sur
| rOundings are rather discouraging.
Rocky peninsulas jut out to shelter its
harbOr. A dun-colOred. dry plain sur
| rounds the town. A few miles TO the
northwest lie the scanned, baked-clay
hills Of Baluchistan, "as strange a
| country as any in Asia"
OFF along the coast and into BaIuchi-
stan strikes the amphibian telegraph
/ line that gives Karachi its most direct
connection with the West. A land line
until it gets well into Baluchistan, it
! then dives into the sea TO come Gp
again on the Persian coast and strike
overland through Persia and Turkey to
| Europe.
Karachi has been built almost from
the ground up since the British gained
possession in 1913, and it therefore has
something of a western aspect archi-
tecturally. But few cities can muster
a more varied array Of racial types
| and odd costumes. The live stock
shows little less variety. In the streets
are camels from the nearby desert.
| ponies and horses in all shapes and
sizes as well as donkeys. Floczs of
sheep and goats, too, are driven in
from the hill couRtry.
Gateway for Central Asia.
Karachi is not only a door for India.
it is the gateway besides for much Of
| central Asia. Numerous products that
are freighted into Karachi harbOr find
their way up through the famous Khy-
Der Pass and over Himalayan trails
TO Afghanistan. Turkistan and Tibet.
| Many millions of dollars have been
| spent on the harbOr of Karachi in the
construction of moles. jetties and 9TH
er port works. Keeping its waters
! deep enough IS a never ending fight.
A strong ocean current sweeps TO the
entrance part of the tremendous load
Of silt brought down by the Indus. and
this must be continually dredged away
that Karachi may not suffer a fate like
| that which overlook Tatta and Shah
| bandar
A grass plot in Karachi is an orchid
patch. Grass. just plain grass, is about
( the most expensive flower the city af-
fords. 1t is priced By the resident be-
cause il is a reminder of the country
side of old England, and by the visitor
because ii is the one touch of green
against the dun-gray desert. One typi-
cally Indian sight Of Karachi is the
crocodile which is more prevalent in
India tradition than apparent in pres
ent-day fact
The average Of the maximum daily
temperatures in Karachi is 81 degrees,
which would hardly lead one TO sus-
pect that it is the summer resort %
Sind. Yet the sea breezes make Il tia
coolest spot in this driest and hsttes1
region OF India