2l8 VREDENBURGr SKETCH OF BALOCHFSTAN DESERT. 



Part II. 

 DETAILED DESCRIPTIONS. 



Chapter I.— DESCRIPTION OF SECTIONS. 



Neighbourhood of Nushki. 

 Nushki lies at the eastern edge of a great desert which, north of 

 Nushki itself, is bounded on the east by an almost rectilinear line of 

 escarpments, This long line of escarpments is the western limit of 

 a broad range composed of many parallel ridges which bears the 

 name of Kojak and Khwdja Amra*n in districts further north. 

 Nearer Nushki it bears on the maps the name of Sarlat range. To 

 the east this range, or rather this aggregate of ridges, borders on to 

 a plain which on the maps bears successively, from south to north, 

 the names of " Gurgina," " Shorarud," and (i Peshin." Again east 

 of this latter plain there is another range which, in the neighbour- 

 hood of Quetta, is called the i( Ghaziaband " range from the name of 

 the i( Ghaziaband pass," where it consists of shales and nummulitic 

 limestone; further south the proportion of limestone increases and 

 ShvaliiooftheGhazia- the ran g e is fringed on either side by tilted 

 band range. Siwalik strata. As to the great broad range 



bordering on to the desert, and which bears successively the names of 

 " Sarlat," " Khwija Amr£n," " K6}ak," and continues northwards 

 as the (< T6ba plateau," it consists, east of Nushki, of exactly the 

 same rocks that constitute it further north in the " Toba " region. 

 These rocks are alternating beds of grey splintery shales and cal- 

 careous sandstones. In the eastern part of the range these show 

 numerous synclinal and anticlinal folds. It often happens that the 

 horizontal, or nearly horizontal strata along the axis of a syncline or 

 anticline are preserved in the upper portion of a hill, and the broad 

 sandstone bands alternating with the shales causes these summits to 

 take a very peculiar stepped appearance under the influence of 



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