CHAPTER IX.
BALUCHISTAN--BEILA.
The coast-line of Baluchistan is six hundred miles long.

On it there is one tree, a sickly, stunted-looking thing, near the telegraph station of Gwadar, which serves as a landmark to native craft and a standing joke to the English sailor.

Planted some years since by a European, it has lived doggedly on, to the surprise of all, in this arid soil.

The Tree of Baluchistan is as well known to the manner in the Persian Gulf as Regent Circus or the Marble Arch to the London cabman.
With this solitary exception, not a trace of vegetation exists along the sea-board from Persian to Indian frontier.

Occasionally, at long intervals, a mud hut is seen, just showing that the country is inhabited, and that is all.