SAHARAWAN, a district of Baluchistan of about 10,000 square miles. The population does not exceed 50,000. Tho borders of this elevated plateau, the more northern of the Baluch con federate provinces, runs with the Afghan districts of Peshing and Toba, dependent on Kandahar, and is separated on the east by a range of hills, from Dadar and Cutch Gandava. It has only the Bolan river and a few rivulets, but the climate is cool, and the rains ensure good grain harvests. The Raisani, the most respectable of the Sahiu-a wan tribes (from Rais, ARAB., a ruler), are able to raise 500 fighting men. The Brahui tribes in Saharawan and Jhalawan, whose great chief is the Khan of Kalat, ethnologists consider to be of the same Seythic stock as the Dravidian races in the south, and infer from thia that the pasaage of some of tho Dravidian tribes frorn Turan was along the valley of the Indus.
The Bolan pass, on theborder of Saharawati,leads from the Dasht-i-be-Daulat to Maar, and is the great route of communicationbetween the western Afghan provinces and the countries opening on the Indus. It is a continuous succession of ravines and gorges. The air in the lower part of the pass is in summer oppressively hot and unhealthy. It extends from lat. 29° 30' to 29° 52' N., and long. 67° 4' to 67° 40' E.-55 miles; or half a mile wide at entrance. The entrance is 800 feet ; Ab - i - gntn, 2540 ; crest, 5793 feet. Average ascent, 90 feet per mile. The Bolan pass with the Moolla pass, far to the south, are the only level routes intersecting the great chain of mountains, defining, on the east, the low countries of Catch Gandava and the valley of the Indus ; while -westward it supports the elevated regions of Kalat and Saharawan. There are many other
passes over the chain, but all of them from the east have a steep and difficult ascent, and conduct to the brink of the plateau or table-laud. Such are the passes of Takari and Nagow, between the Bolan and Moolla routes, and there are others to the north of the Bolan. This pass is no less important, as occurring in the direct line of com munication between Sind and the neighbouring countries with Kandahar and Khora,san. It also constitutes, in this direction, the boundary be tween the Sard-sehl and Gasm-sehl, or the cold and hot journeys (sard sair, garm sair). The natives here affum that all below the pass is Hind, and that all above it is Khorasan. This distinction is in, a great measure warranted, not only because the pass separates very different races from each other, speaking various dialects, but that it marks the line of a complete change of climate, and natural productions.
The Bolan river is about 70 miles long ; the Sir-i-Bolan pass, in lat. 29° 51' N., and long. 67° 8' E., is 4191 feet above the sea. It is remark ably sinuous, but runs generally south-easterly, from a junction with the Nazi river. It is liable to inundation ; and as its bed in some parts occupies the whole breadth of the ravine, travellers are frequently overtaken by its torrents. It falls 3751 feet in 54 miles from its source to Dadar.—Mas son's Journeys, i. p. 338.