[Sidenote: 54. The Chappar Rift.] [Sidenote: 55. The Same.] The gradients of the Harnai route are not quite so steep as those of the Mashkaf. Should either way be blocked or carried away by landslips or floods the other would be available. The Harnai line passes through the Chappar Rift, a precipitous gorge in a great mass of limestone. In this view we are approaching the Rift from Mangi, and then we have a view looking back from the middle of the Rift. As will be seen, the railway runs across high bridges and through tunnels in the mountain masses. [Sidenote: 56. Native Bazaar, Quetta.] Quetta occupies a very important strategical position, about a mile above sea level, in the midst of a small plain surrounded by great mountain ridges rising to a height of two miles and more. Irrigation works have been constructed in the Quetta plain, which is now an oasis among desert mountains, and has a population of some thirty thousand, including many Afghans. The Agent General for British Baluchistan resides there. The town, with its outposts, is of course very strongly fortified, commanding as it does the railways leading southeastward to the Indus, and the Khojak Pass leading northwestward to Chaman and Kandahar. Here we have a scene in the native bazaar, with Hindus performing a festival dance. [Sidenote: 57. Street in Chaman.] From Quetta the railway is carried northwestward, through the Khojak tunnel, for another hundred and twenty miles to Chaman on the frontier, where is a British outpost. Here is a street in Chaman, with two old Pathans. Chaman is at present the terminus of the railway. The material is, however, kept ready for its continuation, in case of need, to Kandahar, in Afghanistan, seventy miles further. From Kandahar through Herat to the rail-head of the Russian Trans-Caspian Railway is some four hundred miles. By this route, did circumstances allow, a connection might be made, giving through railway communication between Europe and India.