j>4 VREDENBURG "• SKETCH OF BALUCHISTAN DESERT. 



Brazier-Creagh collected on the cone are remarkably similar to 

 those of the Tafdin and Sultan volcanoes, and like them contain 

 the same exceptional hornblende. 



Mr. Blanford mentions the occurrence near the Narmashir 

 desert of a number of perfectly fresh-looking volcanic cones. From 

 his description, it appears that there are two different series, 

 an older one of well consolidated rocks which have undergone a 

 moderate degree of disturbance, and a newer one overlying the 

 former, and which are described as "chiefly ashes and vesicular 

 blocks of comparatively recent origin, with a few outbursts of 

 basalt, which are doubtless lava- flows. 1 " The specimens from this 

 newer series, which are preserved in the Survey collection, are 

 andesites, often highly scoriaceous, which appear perfectly fresh. 



Other cones exist, no doubt, in southern Afghanistan : the 

 specimens from which Mr. Holland described the peculiar hornblende 

 so common in these rocks, were obtained by Dr. Maynard near 

 Malik Dokhand. 



To the west of the Koh-i-Tafda'n, and connected with it by 

 high ground, is a group of mountains that rise to a considerable 

 height, several peaks exceeding an altitude of io ; ooo feet. At the 

 distance from which I saw them, they seem to consist of stratified 

 rocks which exhibit uniform and moderate dips, thus differing in 

 appearance from the usually contorted structure of the older 

 formations. They form stupendous cliffs of shapes not unlike those 

 which have been carved by denudation in the K6h-i-Sult5n. The 

 specimens of coloured clay or "Mak" collected by Major Brazier- 

 Creagh were labelled, "Chehltan range" 2 and were probably derived 

 from these hills, which would represent an older ruined volcano 

 that preceded the modern K6h-i-Tafda*n. 



Further, as has been several times mentioned in the previous 

 chapters, it is possible that some distinctly older eruptions occurred 

 during the pliocene period. This is perhaps the age of the older 



1 Eastern Persia, Vol. II, p. 482. 



2 Colonel Sykes also speaks of these mountains as the Taftan lange. Geog. Journ., 

 Vol. X (1897), p. 573. 



( 106 ) 



