24 VREDENBURG : RECENT ARTESIAN EXPERIMENTS IN FND7A. 



Mr. Medlicott's report have not been very numerous. Most of them 

 have been described in the publications of the Geological Survey- 

 A short account of the most important ones is given in the following 

 chapter. 



CHAPTER II. 



Detailed account of some recent experiments, 



(/) Baluchistan. 

 The most successful borings are those of Quetta. The struc- 

 ture of the deposits underlying the plain of Quetta has beeii 

 fully explained by Mr. Oldham in a paper published by the Govern- 

 ment and reproduced in the Records of the Geological Survey. 1 

 The town of Quetta is situated in the midst of a broad plain sur- 

 structure of recent de- rounded by high ranges of hills, The streams 



posits of the Quetta plain. that issue from those hfflg carry> ; n times f 



flood, boulders and coarse detritus which they abandon owing to 

 the diminished gradient when they enter the plain. Owing to 

 the scantiness of the rainfall, the plain is not scoured by streams 

 powerful enough to remove these materials, and thus shallow cones 

 of talus material or " alluvial fans " are formed, constituting a very 

 characteristic feature of desert regions. They all coalesce with one 

 another and with the talus formed by the ordinary process of dis- 

 integration, forming a broad incline, the so-called " daman " which 

 fringes the mountain ranges in Baluchistan. At the apex of each 

 of the shallow cones the river divides itself into a number of branches 

 very much as it would do in a " delta." These channels are usually 



1 " On the mode of occurrence and probable distribution of artesian water in the valley 

 plains of the Quetta and Pishin District," reprinted in " Sub-recent and Recent Deposits of 

 the valley plains of Quetta, Pishin, and the Dasht-i-Bedaolat ; with appendices on the Chamans 

 of Quetta, and the Artesian Water Supply of Quetta and Pishin." Rec. Geol. Surv. Ind.j 

 Vol. XXV, pp. 36-53 • 

 ( 24 ) 



