LOFTUS TURKO-PERSIAN FRONTIER. 279 



white limestone without fossils, crop out from under the above 

 nummulitic limestone. These are underlaid by very considerable 

 beds of white and cream-coloured compact limestone, splitting in thin 

 layers, in which I found portions of a small Ammonite, — traces of 

 Fuci^ — and Worm-like casts. Blue shales similar to those above lie 

 next in order. I refer the beds below the great limestone to the 

 Chalk, but cannot say positively that the limestone lies conformably 

 upon them, though I am inclined to believe that it does. 



At Kiih 1 Bamii, a lofty range bounding the plain of Zohab on the 

 N.W., the upper layers of the hmestone are positively filled with 

 large N. complanata, Lamk., and microscopic bodies. 



At the Derbend Khani, where the Shirwan River passes through 

 the north-western prolongation of the Bamii chain, a good section is 

 presented in the cliffs on the right bank from a precipitous east face. 

 The beds bend from the summit of the mountain, and dip on the 

 S.W. into the plain nearly vertically, throwing ofP the gypsum- 

 deposits in great contortions. The following descending section of 

 1 000 feet (roughly estimated) is observed on entering the gorge : — 



1 . Saccharoidal, compact, hard, white marble. 



2. Thick bed of bJuish-grey, calcareous, indurated marl. 



3. Yellowish calcareous grit and fine gravel. 



The whole of these beds are conformable to each other, and con- 

 tain Nummulites and Operculhue. The marl is completely charged 

 with AlveolincE, and is probably an extension of the Kirrind bed 

 No. 6 (fig. 9, 3/). Lower beds are not here exposed. 



An east and west fault occurs at the Derbend Khani, whereby 

 the range on the northern side of the Shirwan is thrust nearly a 

 quarter of a mile westward of the southern portion of the chain, the 

 river flowing through the line of fault. 



Kiih 1 Bizenan is a lofty range, connecting Kuh i Bamii with 

 Karayez. The mountain is cleft in the centre, along the line of its 

 axis, from S.E. to N.W., and on either side of the gorge or valley 

 thus formed the order of conformable superposition is as follows 

 (descending) : — 



1. Thick bed of crystalline and of compact, hard, cherty, white 



limestone (weathering reddish-yellow), 500 feet ; contains 

 Corals, spines of Echinoderms, and minute microscopic bodies, 

 associated with Orbitoides dispansus. 



2. Thin bed of fawn-coloured lithographic limestone, easily separable 



into very fine layers, and resembling the " paper-limestone " 

 from the dolomitic rocks of Marsden, in the county of Durham. 

 It is unfossiliferous ; and thin lines of solid flint are intercalated 

 in the limestone. 



3. White indurated limestone and fissile clunch, greyish or fawn- 



coloured, in regularly deposited thin beds, but of great thickness 

 in the aggregate, contains flint- nodules distributed at intervals, 

 and a few indistinct traces of Fucoids. 



The two lower beds of this section, from the resemblance to the 

 limestone containing Ammonites, which is intercalated between the 



