GEOLO(;iCAL HISTORY OF NORTHEASTERN PERSIA. 241 
Thus far, for a distance of 250 miles from vSerakhs on tlie north to the farther 
side of the basin of "Nemeksar" on the south, the Afj>^han depression presents the 
appearance of an undulatin<>- hollow with nearly equal slopes from east and west. 
Farther south, however, the west side of the hollow becomes short and steep, and 
there seems to have been faulting^ as well as warping. Near Meliki, at the southern 
end of the Nemeksar basin, the western boundary of the depression consists of a 
long line of mountains running nearly north and south, with a remarkably straight 
front. They are not dissected by the deep re-entrant valleys filled with gravel which 
are so characteristic a feature of most of the mountains in the basin of Iran. The 
spurs between the valleys end alnu]3tly and steepen toward the front as though they 
were the remnants of the facets of a fault scarp ( Davi.s, c, p. 14(8-1 54). Apparently this 
steep escarpment marks a relatively recent fault with a heave of many hundred feet 
on the west side. This is borne out by the appearance of the top of the upheaved block. 
From a study of the map and from the appearance of the escarpment from below 
one expects to ascend to the top of the ridge and enter a region of ridges and vallevs 
like the ordinar)' mountain districts of America and Europe. The top of the escarp- 
ment fulfills this expectation, for it is a distinct ridge, at an elevation of 5,000 to 
7,000 feet.* Toward the west the ridge descends much less steeply than toward 
the east, and at a height of about 4,000 feet merges into plains of gravel and silt of 
the same sort as those on the down-faulted side, except that they stand some 2,000 
feet higher and the mountains surrounding them are le.ss deeply buried in gravel. 
In other words, the country on either side of the fault appears to have been origin- 
ally of the .same type, the ordinary mountain-girt basin type of Eastern Persia. One 
side was uplifted and expo.sed to somewhat greater rainfall and erosion ; the other 
was depressed and exposed to diminished rainfall and increa.sed deposition. Hence 
the upland is a mountainous region containing basins floored with gra\el ; the 
lowland is a basin, almost filled with gravel, from which project mountain tops. 
Between the hollow of Nemek.sar and the much larger hollow of Sistan lies 
the Dasht-i-Naumad, or Desert of Despair, the central portion of which can not be 
crossed for lack of water. It does not appear to differ essentially from the lifeless 
desert wastes of silt and gravel which floor the hollow of Nemeksar. On the edges, 
at least, it contains the usual complement of buried mountains. Evenwhere 
dreariness and desolation are the rule. The Desert of Despair is a place where 
men and animals die of hunger and thirst and their companions have no pit%-. .\ 
caravan of Afghans which crossed our track was about to return across the northern 
edge of the desert with salt from Nemeksar to be sold at Sebzavar in Afghanistan. 
They reported that on the outward journey the>' had been delated and several of 
their number had died of hunger. 
" But had the rest of you no bread ? " " Yes, we had enouiih, but we could not 
give any to them, for we might have suffered from hunger ourselves.'' 
The desert makes men lose everj- sentiment except the desire to get safel)- to 
the other side. 
*Tlic ridge consists of a cap of limestone lying unconforniably on a complex of igneous rocks 
composed chiefly of dark traps shot tliroiigh with dykes and masses of light-colored felsite, and 
occasionally interspersed with bodies of highly metamorphosed slate. 
