Pishin
a district of southern Afghanistan (British Beluchistan after the Afghan War), just N. of Quetta, which has been governed by a political agent of the governor-general of India since 1878. The British occupied it on account of its great strategical importance; it is the meeting-place of several roads, practicable for troops but not for wheeled carriages, leading from Sind and Punjab to Kandahar. The districtarea, 3,600 miles; elevation, 5,000 feetconsists of alluvial valleys separated by range of hills, the whole sloping S. W. and surrounded by mountain chains that reach N. and S. 11,000 feet. The people, partly settled, partly nomad, grow wheat, barley, maize, millet, lucerne, ind watermelons, and muskmelons, and trade in horses to India. Pop. about 450,000.