Surface. Baluchistan is mountainous, but has also broad and high tablelands and some extensive sandy deserts. One of its mountain systems extends north and the other east and west. Many of the mountains have great height and are snow covered, while the tablelands are very hot in summer and extremely cold in winter. Its most important rivers are the Bolan and Mula, which are located in the northeast.
Natural Resources. It is believed that the mineral wealth is quite important, and includes, gold, silver, lead, copper, iron, mineral salts and saltpetre. Throughout the country there is a great scarcity of water, and the soil generally speaking is not fertile. The following articles, however, are produced to some extent: wheat, barley, millet, cotton, rice, indigo and tobacco. Orchard and garden fruits are grown near the towns and vegetables are very plentiful. Attention is given to the breeding of fine camels.
Manufactures. The manufacturing interests are unimportant, and consist mainly of coarse fabrics, matchlocks and other weapons.
Government. The khan or tribal ruler receives an annual grant from India, and resides at Kelat, while his rule is almost confined to the surrounding country. Quet-ta is the largest town and has railway connection with India. It is strongly fortified, and is occupied by a British garrison. The country is a British protectorate, and while not wholly under their rule, is completely under British influence. Population over 915,000.
Balzac (băl'zăk' ), Honore de, a great French novelist, was born at Tours in 1799. He studied law, but gave it up and went to Paris to try his fortune as an author. For ten years he lived in wretched circumstances, writing stories which were of little value. In his thirtieth year he wrote his first great novel, The Last Chouan, which brought him into notice. Soon after he began his great work, called The Human Comedy, which was intended to be a complete picture of modern life. He was a very hard worker, and wrote eighty-five novels in twenty years. Few writers have shown such power in describing character and in giving reality and life to their characters. Some of his best works are Scenes of Provincial Life, Scenes of Parisian Life, La Peau de Chagrin (The Magic Skin), Le Cousin Pons, Séraphita, Contes Drôlatiques, Eugénie Grandet and Father Goriot. He died at Paris, Aug. 18, 1850.
Bamboo', a kind of tree-like grass, which grows to a large size in the warmer parts of Asia and America. Some kinds are at least eighty feet high. It is used for a great variety of purposes, such as housebuilding, shipmasts, furniture, spear-shafts and walking sticks. As the stem is hollow and very strong, it is also used for water pipes. In some varieties a sweet juice is found, which in India is used for cooking.
Banana, (bȧ-nä'nȧ), the name of a fruit and also of the plant which produces it. It is thought to be a native of India, but is now grown in all tropical countries. We get our bananas largely from the West Indies and Central America. The fruit is grown extensively in our island possessions, and some is produced in Florida, Louisiana and California. There are many varieties; the one commonly exported is the Martinique, which shows a large bunch of yellow fruit. A delicious variety is the apple banana, a small banana with fragrance and taste of the apple. In Hawaii, just in the home garden of the sugar planter, may be grown fifteen different kinds. Common in tropical countries is a popularly called cooking banana, not edible raw; with thick, salmon-colored flesh and dark skin, similar to the plantain of the South Seas. It is told that the natives of one of the South Sea islands subsist entirely on bananas; on many islands it is the main food. Between the plantain and the banana there is little, if any, botanical difference. Both are Musa sapientum. The plantain, a much less familiar fruit, is large, solid and mealy compared with the ordinary banana. The banana is very nutritious and wholesome when thoroughly ripe. The bunches are cut off when green; those for export, so they will ship well; those for home use, to keep them from the birds. They are often hung from the beam of the veranda to ripen. Some bunches grow to enormous size, one occasionally weighing 80 pounds. A small area of land will produce a rich crop.
A plant bears but a single bunch, then the stalk is cut down and the sprouts take its place. When about three feet high, these are transplanted, put far enough apart to allow space for the great leaves that will outspread wide when full grown. The plant or tree varies in height from 10 to 40 feet, and at the top of the stalk the immense, undivided leaves are from six to ten feet long and one to two feet wide. The flower-bearing is most curious; the flower cluster with its tight-overlapping scales is a great elongated purple bud in appearance. Under each scale is a true flower of which there may be over a hundred in each "bud," forming that many bananas as they develop. Under favorable conditions a banana plant bears when from twelve to eighteen months old. Bananas grown for their fruit are perpetuated by root-cuttings, by sprouts and suckers.
Ban'croft, George, a distinguished American historian, was born in Worcester, Massachusetts, in 1800. He graduated from Harvard College, and studied two years at Gottingen, Germany. He was tutor in Greek at Harvard for one year, and with a fellow Student carried on a school in Northampton
