294 VREDENBURG : SKETCH OF BALfJCHISTAN DESERT. 



that they contain galena. The carbonates of copper occur as mere 

 incrustations. The galena is occasionally collected by the inhabit- 

 ants and smelted for making shot and bullets. 



Very similar veins are found at Roba't Koh and Malik-i-Sia"h K6h. 



Here the rocks traversed by them are princi- 

 |K6h-i-Malik-Siah. . . . 



pally nummulitic limestone of lower eocene age. 



The limestone and underlying shales are largely intruded into by 



great masses of diorite, but the mineral veins and also some very basic 



magma basalts are probably newer than the diorite. The minerals 



contained in the veins are mostly iron ores, carbonate of iron and 



hematite, occasionally associated with carbonate of copper. Hematite 



occurs not only in the larger veins, but in the shape of small 



crystals of specular iron it is found coating the fissures and planes 



of stratification of the limestone in the immediate neighbourhood of 



the dioritic intrusions. 



Amongst the recent volcanoes which rise in the western portion 



„ . i of the district visited, the K6h-i-Tafdan is at the 



Products or recent vol- » 



canoes. present day in the condition of a solfatara. The 



Koh-i-Sulta'n also went through the same stage before it became 

 finally extinct ; denudation has since laid bare some large masses of 

 rock highly altered by mineral vapours. 



The masses of travertine formerly deposited by thermal springs, 

 which are now exhausted, may also be regarded as the products of 

 volcanic activity. 



I did not visit the crater of the Koh i-Tafdin in Persia, but pieces 

 of sulphur picked up upon the slopes of the volcano show that this 

 mineral is no doubt abundant. 



The mineral products of the K6h-i-Sultan have been described 

 in a previous chapter. 



( i«6 ) 



