RECORDS 
OF THE 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OE INDIA. 
Part 2.] 
1873 . 
[May. 
Note on the Geological formations seen along the coasts of Biujchistan and 
Persia from Karachi to the head of the Persian Gitlf, and on some of the 
Gulf Islands, hy William T. Blanford, A.B. S.M., P. G. S., Deputy Superin¬ 
tendent, Geological Survey of India. 
The coasts of India, so far as the geology is concerned, may be now said to be fairly 
known, but hitherto, so far as I am aware,* very little, if any, information has been published 
concerning the rocks seen on the coasts of the Gulf of ‘Oman’ and the Persian Gulf. 
Through the labours of Dr. Carter,f we have a fair knowledge of several points on the 
south-east coast of Arabia, but the only port visited hy him eastward of Bus el Had, the 
south-eastern corner of the Arabian peninsula, was Maslcat. Dr. Cook has given descriptions 
of the country around Ivhelat, and several other parts of Biluchistan, but he did not examine 
the coast, and Eastern Pei'sia is almost a terra incognita even to geographers. 
Through the kindness of Mr. II. Walton, Director of the Makran Coast and Persian 
Gulf Telegraph, I have had an opportunity of accompanying him in his tour of inspection 
of the telegraph offices along the Biluchistan (or, as it is more commonly called, Makran) and 
Persian coasts,* and of visiting and briefly examining several points of interest, besides 
the neighbourhood of the various telegraph stations. From the steamer, whilst passing 
along the coast, the greater portion of the rocks forming the utterly barren hills have 
been sufficiently well seen to enable them to ho recognised as belonging to the same pecu¬ 
liar formation which I examined at Bus Malan, Ilormara, Gwadar, Chur bar, and Jashk, 
east of the entrance to the Persian Gulf, and which I believe to he the same as that which 
I found on the islands of Kisbm and Hanjam in the south-eastern part of the Persian 
Gulf, and on Kharak Island near Buskehr. The mountains behind Bandar Abbas and 
Linga on the north-east coast of the gulf are composed of rocks so much resembling in 
appearance those of the Makran Coast that l think it probable, with the exception of a 
peculiar salt formation in Hormuz and the neighbouring islands to he presently described, 
* This paper being written away from books of reference, I may have overlooked some previously published 
description of parts of the Makran or Persian Coast. It is probable that brief notices of tbe rocks occur in some 
of the geographical papers on the shores of tire Persian Gulf. 
t Jour. Bom. Be. R. A. S., Vol. IV, p. 21, and Geol. Papers on West Iud„ p. 551. 
$ I take this opportunity of expressing the very great obligations 1 am under to Mr. Walton for the facilities 
afforded to mo for examining tlie different places on tire shore, at some of which he stopped solely for the purpose 
of enabling me to visit them; aud I am equally indebted to Captain Bishop, Commanding 1L M. S. Amberwi'lck, for 
assistance of all kiuds, the use of boats whenever I wanted them, and especially for aid in dredging. 
