LOFTUS TURKO-PERSIAN FRONTIER. 295 



journey over these slates, the foot of the Garrin Pass is reached, 

 where an agreeable change takes place in the scenery. Thick forests 

 of oaks and other trees occur, but no visible alteration is perceptible 

 in the geognostic features. The Garrin Pass is wholly composed of 

 the same friable schists. These continue to the Turkish Frontier, a 

 day and a half further, on approaching which blocks of porphyry and 

 altered limestone become abundiant in all the mountain-streams, and 

 the blue limestone and associated schists are thrown up into dis- 

 orderly mountain masses on all sides, indicating the proximity of the 

 igneous rocks. 



The igneous rocks themselves at length make their appearance, 

 running in an east direction, and forming the high range called Bird 

 i Koteh llesh. After sweeping in a wide circuit, they bear away to 

 the N.W., thus giving to the Turks a considerable projection into 

 the Persian territory. The direct road from Senna to Banna, there- 

 fore, twice crosses the frontier. 



At the first Pass (Kel i Melek), where the Bird i Koteh Resh is 

 reached, the axial rock of dark -green porphyry is protruded through 

 fissile slates, which are thrown up vertically on either side of the 

 Pass. A succession of slate-spurs occurs on the road to Weyna, at 

 the foot of the second Pass called Kel i Hangerjal. 



The ascent from Weyna is extremely abrupt. It passes through a 

 forest of gall-oaks, and over vertical slates strewed with blocks of com- 

 pact, green, felspathic rocks, fine-grained grey rock (of quartz, carbon- 

 ate of lime, and mica), talcose rock, blue limestone, porphyry, and 

 quartz, which have fallen from the lofty peaks of the range. Detached 

 masses of altered blue limestone are frequently seen elevated upon the 

 slopes, and even the summits, of the igneous peaks. The remainder of 

 the day's journey from Weyna to Banna is over the slates capped by 

 blue limestone and traversed by quartz-veins, containing iron-ore, 

 and sometimes auriferous, which also extend from the latter place, 

 along the valley or undulating plain of the River Kellu, or Lesser 

 Zab, to Ser Desht. This valley or plain is bounded on the west by 

 the Frontier Range, and on the east by the Kiih i Kiirtek, — both 

 igneous chains. The latter is chiefly composed of green porphyry, 

 traversed by veins of syenite, but has two or three of its peaks 

 crowned with limestone crags. Thrown off from the Kiih i Kiirtek, 

 at the village of Nistan, and dipping towards it at an angle of 45°, is 

 a dark-coloured rock of quartz with mica, in fine layers, and decom- 

 posed talcose slates. From Nistan, these slates form a sloping plain 

 towards the A'b i Kellii, on the south ; but they are in a great 

 measure covered by reddish alluvium, through which the tributary 

 streams from the north cut their way in ravines of from 500 to 800 

 feet in depth. Near the river, where the alluvium is of the greatest 

 thickness, the plain is destitute of oaks. Where, however, the slates 

 become mixed with the alluvium, a genial soil for the gall-oak is the 

 result, and the forest extends in a broad zone over the slates to their 

 junction with the igneous rocks, where it entirely ceases. An exten- 

 sive and very elevated range intervenes between the Plain of Ser 

 Desht and that of Lahijan, consisting of infinite varieties of serpen- 



