1873.] BLAtfFORD PERSIAN SUPERFICIAL DEPOSITS. 497 



broad valley already referred to is about 30 miles long, diminishing 

 gradually in breadth from about 20 miles at Bam to 10 miles at its 

 upper extremity, which is at an elevation of about 5500 feet above 

 the sea. The slope at each side of the valley is in places at least 

 10 miles broad, and inclined at about 2°. In the upper part of the 

 valley there is no stream or stream-bed in the middle; 'at the time- 

 when I marched through it a considerable torrent, fed by melting 

 snows, ran for 20 miles halfway up the side of the lateral slope. 



Another good example was seen about twenty miles S.W. of the 

 town of Karman. Our march lay across a valley running W.N.W. 

 and E.S.E., and about thirteen miles in breadth. On the north 

 side of the valley there is for three miles a regular slope at an 

 angle of about 3°, or rather less ; a breadth of about six miles at 

 the bottom of the valley is nearly flat, and consists of a light- 

 coloured sandy alluvium ; whilst the gravelly incline on the south of 

 the valley is from four to five miles broad, with a rise of 450 feet ; 

 so that the angle of inclination scarcely exceeds 1°. 



To take a few examples from better-known parts of Persia, a 

 very fair slope, of small breadth however, exists just sonth of the 

 city of Isfahan. The main road northwards from Isfahan to Tehran, 

 from the halting-place atMurchikiir, two marches north of Isfahan, 

 and 5500 feet above the sea, almost as far as Soh, the next halting- 

 place, at an elevation of nearly 8000 feet, a distance of twenty- 

 three miles, passes over one long slope of detritus. There is a very 

 well-marked incline about five miles broad, and with a difference 

 of 1500 feet between the top and base, just south of Kashdn, about 

 100 miles north of Isfahan, and on the edge of the great desert 

 plain which extends nearly to Tehran. And, lastly, Tehran itself is 

 on the lower edge of a slope which stretches upwards to the base 

 of the Elburz mountains, and which is ten miles broad, with a rise 

 of about 2000 feet. 



Deposits at higher elevations. — Even at higher elevations than 

 those to which I have hitherto referred, immense accumulations of 

 loose deposits cover the country in many places ; and the higher 

 ranges and peaks rise out of them. Thus on the march from Bam 

 to Karman, the road, between Bagyin and Mohun, ascends in one 

 place to upwards of 9000 feet above the sea. The ascent and de- 

 scent are extremely gradual, the region traversed consisting of a 

 somewhat broken undulating tract, composed of gravel and clay 

 with boulders, and lying between ranges of limestone and other 

 rocks which rise to an elevation of about 4000 feet above the road. 

 I am somewhat inclined to attribute the higher superficial deposits 

 of this class, in part at least, to glacial action ; it is certain that 

 there is a well-marked difference between them and the gravel 

 formations at lower elevations ; but, although large blocks, some- 

 times as much as 2 feet in diameter, were common in the higher 

 deposits, I could find no such angular fragments as usually charac- 

 terize a glacial boulder-clay, all the pebbles and boulders being 

 more or less rounded. In most cases these deposits are destitute 

 of stratification ; but in places they arc distinctly bedded, and in one 



