A VERY WARM PLACE

Hokitika Guardian, 2 July 1921, Page 1

A VERY WARM PLACE

SOUTH WAZIRISTAN. When, unkind reader, the edges of your temper get a bit frayed, you may. possibly consign your friend to a very warm place. ]. admit \ have not been there. But I am writing to you from the nearest approach to it that this world can contrive. If you open a map and find the Indus, then put your finger 20 miles west of its middle, you will ho on the spot—to wit, South Waziristnn (in Eastern Afghanistan, on the border of the North-West Province of India). The heat of India is child’s-play to this. It is an enveloping heat, for it not only comes scorching down from the skies, but, as it were rises from the ground as well, until even bad conductors of heat seem almost red-hot. Thus when your thoughts in Britain turn gently to summer holidays by sea, moorland, or river. we of the desert are calculating how many more weeks we are to spend in the fiery furnace— that is, until October. The gateway of the country is a little wavsido railway station called Darya Khan.'/, From there a pony carriage humps and thumps you across 1(5 miles of sand, until suddenly a fringe of trees on the horizon marks the site of Dora Tstnail Khan city, unaffectionatolv known as “Dreary Dismal.” In* non-flood the Indus is crossed by a bridge of boats, but when the Himalayan snows melt, the stream and the currents are so strong that a motor launch takes from 5 to 7 hours to cross the river. And sometimes even longer, though you may ho almost across in under the hour. Almost, but not quite. That last, hundred yards may literally take you hours, and alas! this is no traveller’s tale hut sober fact.

In duo course you will proceed into the heart of the country. Your last sight of Dreary Dismal will also be your last “ight of green. After that not a tree nor a blade of grass will gladden the strained otye or tho heated head. You look for relief from a breeze.

When I arrived, I was told that a storm was coming up. and in the innocence of my heart T rejoiced. The storm turned out to lie of sand—the last drop of rain had fallen 6 months previously—and darkened the sky as if night had suddenly taken us unawares. Within an hour a thick crust of yellowness covered everything impartially—bed, food, clothes and my hodv as well.

Sandfly and mosquitoes complete the tale of heat.

Most people know about mosquitoes hut sandfly are far less known, except on the frontiers of Tndia. They are just, like little floating smuts, and it seems mpossible that they can bo living organisms—impossible only until you’ve experienced their irritating, fev-er-giving bites! Thereafter your dearest wish is to convert, them from the living to the dead. Lest perhaps this picture appears to lie too black, it is only fair to mention that there is a hotter side. 'Pho blistering, scorching summer is followed by a perfect winter. Cool nedits and days and bracing air (ompensnte largely for what lias gone before in this very hot, place.