244 THE BASIN OF EASTERN PERSIA AND SISTAN. 
The lava cap lies horizontal ; the shales dip about 20° to the north or north- 
west. The shales are bnt slightly consolidated, and do not appear to be of great 
age. Their resemblance to the formations of Sistan, to be described later, is so 
close that it may be significant. 
Twenty miles southeast of the above section, at a point a few miles west of 
Husseinabad, on the main tributarj' of the Chahak basin, the valley walls consist of 
highly folded green clay shales of much the same composition as those of the 
section just given, although more iiidurated. It is probable that they form the 
lower members of the same series, for similar shales are seen at intervals between 
the two sections. The Husseinabad shales show a strong overthrust from east to 
west ; that is, out from the mountains toward the great basin of the Dasht-i-IyUt 
(fig. 160). It should be noted that these beds, like the older shales at Zorabad, 
must have been deposited in water of at least moderate depth, which preserved 
nearly the same conditions for a long period. The recent strata at Chahak, on the 
other hand, like those at Sistan, seem to have been deposited under changing condi- 
tions, which favored first the deposition of green and then of pink cLins. In the 
next basin we shall come to pink beds deposited entirely under subaerial conditions. 
The Bajislan Basin. — Bajistan, 40 miles north of Tim, lies on the southern 
margin of a large "kavir," or salt playa, which, according to Curzon's map, extends 
some 75 miles northeast and southwest, and from 10 to 30 in the other direction. 
The playa, at most times, contains a ver)- small amount of standing water surrounded 
bv a broad white plain of salt mixed with silt, nniddy in winter, dry and powdery 
in summer. About 25 miles northeast of the edge of the playa and 20 miles south- 
west of Turbat-i-Haideri, the gently sloping plain of Bajistan rises into a low line 
of hills a thousand feet above the " kavir." These hills are composed for the most 
part of reddish or pink silts which attain a thickness of several hundred feet. At 
intervals the silts are interrupted by layers of sand from 10 to 20 feet thick and of 
a reddish-brown color. These strata of alternating silt and sand are soft and uncon- 
solidated ; they are folded to such an extent that dips of 15° are not uncommon, 
and they extend around the edge of the basin and along its sides for some miles. 
Apparentl)- they were deposited in the basin at a time when it was larger. They have 
since been uplifted and warped, while the central deposits into which they merge 
have remained midisturbed. In stnicture, color, and texture the Bajistan strata 
suggest the more sandy portions of the pink strata at Sistan. They bear a stronger 
resemblance to the pink deposits of the Tertiary in Central Turkestan and the 
Kashgar basin. To a less degree they resemble the deposits of the Jam and Nemeksar 
basins, although at Bajistan no gypsum was noticed. It is probable that all these 
red and pink strata are of subaerial origin or were deposited in verj- shallow saline 
playas or estuaries. No other explanation seems to account for the absence of fossils, 
the presence of gypsum, the red color, and the alternations between sand and finer silt. 
OTHBR LOCALITIES. 
Blanford cites a few instances of deposits which apparently belong to the same 
class as those mentioned above. Near Abarik («', p. 485), on the edge of the 
Dasht-i-Lut between Bam and Kinnan, " are some high cliffs of shales and con- 
