^34 VREDENBURG: SKETCH OF BALOCHISTAN DESERT. 



along the foot of the range east of Nushki (page 43) and which 

 recur in a similar situation along the Saindak ranges (see 

 page 79). On the other hand Siwaliks were found occupying a 

 valley in the midst of the mountain mass (see ante, page 47). The 

 component ridges show many irregularities in strike, and the great 

 syenitic intrusion of Ras Koh forms an elongated outcrop whose 

 position does not bear much relation to the structure of the surround- 

 ing sedimentary rocks. Thus it seems that the structure of the 

 range is very complex, but my observations are not sufficient to 

 unravel its peculiarities. 



The next range to the north has received still less attention ; 

 but it seems to present at least one very regular feature, it is a 

 constant belt of Siwalik strata along its southern border, everywhere 

 dipping inwards, towards the range. Between this belt of Siwaliks 

 to the north or north-west and the Kharan hills to the south or 

 south-east, there extends a plain having the 



The N dep h r^! bandin sha P e of a ver y broad flat valle y whose width 



gradually increases in a westerly direction 

 until it joins the Kharan plain and they both merge into the great 

 depressed area of the Hamun-i-Mashkhel. 



In the neighbourhood of Nuskhi this plain is comparatively well 

 watered and accordingly it is somewhat extensively cultivated. But 

 as it gradually broadens to the south-west, it soon becomes one vast 

 desert. Oases are only found in places where a u kdr6z " proceeds 

 from the talus of the Kharan ranges ; for instance, at Mall where a 

 large area planted with tamarisks gives almost the illusion of a Sind 

 landscape ; again at Charsar where there are some brick tombs proba- 

 bly of the seventeenth century whose construction, rough as it may 

 be, denotes a state of the population less degraded than at the present 

 day. There is also a certain amount of irrigation in the neighbour- 

 hood of Dalbandin. 



A great portion of the plain is covered with sand dunes, even in 

 the immediate proximity of cultivated land, for instance, at Nushki. 

 Where it is not concealed by wind-borne sand, the surface of the 



< 56 ) 



