336 Correspondence — Lient.-Gen. C. A. McMahon. 



but that everjf formation should be placed on its proper horizon, and 

 I cannot believe that the proper horizon of the St. Bees Sandstone is 

 the same as the Banter Sandstones. W. T. Aveline. 



15, Kexnington Terrace, Krnnington Park, S.E. 



THE PERSIAN VOLCANO KOH-I-TAFTAN. 



Sir, — In a footnote to a joint paper by my son and myself on the 

 rocks of the Baluch-Afghan frontier (Q.J.G-.S.. vol. liii, p. 289), we 

 gave a short account of a visit by Captain P. Molesworth Sykes to 

 the volcano of Kol)-i-Taftan, 12,600 feet hi<i;h, situated near the 

 eastern border of Persia, about 200 miles north of the Ai-abian Sea. 



Captain P. Molesworth Sykes, who is now Consul at Sistan 

 (Seistan), paid a second visit to Taftan {Koli means 'mountain ' and 

 -^- 'of') last January, and he writes to me as follows: — "When 

 passing the eastern base of Taftan, Wood of the Telegraphs and 

 myself tried to scale it from that side. At about 12,000 feet 

 elevation we found seven orifices from which white vapour was 

 being ejected with a noise like that of a steam-engine. The holes 

 were very small and covered with stones, while, all ai'ound, were 

 sulphur and sal-ammoniac. I collected here three tins full of the 

 sulphur, the ash, and the stone. Almost at the summit the road was 

 barred by perpendicular cliffs some 30 feet high, and so we could 

 not reach it. The vapour issuing from the seven orifices (two being 

 much bigser than the others) was visible for a distance of 10 or 15 

 miles, while the ground close to me was hot enough to break the 

 bulb of my register. The climb was much steeper than on the 

 south-west side, or perhaps I had not quite got over my seediness 

 of the pi'evious summer." 



As so little is yet known about the Taftan volcano, and as it lies 

 so much outside the range of ordinary travellers, the above brief 

 account of Captain Sykes's second visit to this locality is interesting. 

 The great heat of the ground near the orifices through which steam 

 is still ejected under considerable pressure shows that the fires of 

 this old volcano have not yet completely died out. 



Captain Sykes kindly sent me the specimens he collected, but as 

 they have not yet arrived I am afraid they have gone astray en route, 

 or have been confiscated bj' some over-zealous Persian official who, in 

 his care for the morals of Europe, may have thought that suspicious 

 intercourse with the infernal regions ought not to be encouraged. 



Should Captain Sykes again visit Koh-i-Taftan, it would be 

 interesting if he could make a good representative collection of the 

 solid rocks of that mountain found in situ. 



I would remind those who may think it strange that an active 

 volcano should have existed so far away from the sea that in Eocene 

 times the sea flowed over what is now the Indus Valley into 

 Baluchistan and Afghanistan (Manual Geol. India, 2nd ed., p. 494). 

 This sea did not commence its I'etreat until the end of the Eocene 

 period ; and whilst it remained, the Koh-i-Safid range, of which 

 Koh-i-Taftan forms a part, was probably not far removed from 

 its shore. C. A. McMahon, Lieut.-General. 



20, Nevekn Square, S.W. 



