298 
THE RASIN OF EASTERN PERSIA AND SISTAN. 
two, a clam and the pink mussel already mentioned, are said by the natives to still 
live in the lake. The others may also exist, but are too small to be noticed, except 
by the scientist. At present, however, the amount of life in the lake is so small that 
I did not once see any living creatures or even any shells of those that had recently 
died. This decrease in life is the natural result of the drying up of the lake. When 
the water stood at the higher levels and was always abundant, conditions were 
favorable for plentiful lacustrine life; when the water decreased and actually dried 
up, as in 1872, most of the animals perished. 
Fig. 172.— Old L.ake Beach at Sabazkim, looking West. TTie lake stood on the right of the beach and a 
lagoon on the left. 
Near the middle of the bay of Sabazkim the beach and the bluff part company. 
The cliff bends southward and at once loses its steep, freshly-cut appearance and 
becomes like the corresponding cliff at Seh-Kuheh. The beach assumes the fonn of 
a gravel ridge from 10 to 15 feet high and as level as a railway embankment 
(see fig. 172). It continues unbroken for a distance of 4 or 5 miles and po.ssibly 
Xdke 
>~^~^Xaffoon 
Fig. 1 73. — Ideal cross-section of the old Lacustrine Beach at Sabazkim. 
farther. In cross-section (fig. 173) it shows several ridges thrown up when the waves 
were at different heights. Every-where, even in the coarse gravel, shells abound. 
Between the beach and the cliffs to the .south there is a broad lagoon. This is 
bordered by worn, battered cliffs, at the base of which lies a small beach which 
was probably formed before the waves had built the larger beach which now cuts off 
the lagoon. 
