THE TERRACES OF SISTAN. 
299 
Older abandoned shorelines. — Traces of the older lake level were not found 
in great abundance on the southeast side of the lake, although there were enough 
to prove that they exist. At Lutuck the lower bluffs are capped by a narrow plain 
or terrace about 15 feet, possibly more, above the r 5-foot beach. From this rises 
a second line of bluffs much more worn than any of the lower ones and well sheeted 
over with gravel, so that the>- present a slope which a horse or even a camel can 
ascend. At Seh-Kuheh and Sabazkim there are similar old bluffs. Those at 
Sabazkim are shown in the sketch (fig. 174). From either side of the central bluff 
MAUN 
LAKE -BED 
o Aliatoad 
o|w^^\ 
Fig. 174.— Sketch Map of the Ancient Shore features in the Bay of Sabazkim. 
a wing of terrace branches off at a height of about 30 feet above the 15-foot beach. 
The foot of the upper terrace seems to represent the position of the lake at the time 
when the 25-foot beach was formed in the neighborhood of Bereng. Apparently 
here, as at Kuh-i-Chaku, warping took place between the last two fluvial epochs. 
COMPARISONS. 
A comparison of the lacustrine terraces of Sistan with those of other regions 
described in this \olume shows that in each case there were two epochs of high 
water preceding the present epoch of low or medium water. At Shor Kiil, in 
Chinese Turkestan, at the playas of Khaf and of Kulberenj and at Sistan precisely 
the same phenomena are repeated. In the latter case we should not expect more than 
two lacustrine terraces, because of the movements of the crust which have interfered 
with possil^le records of older lake levels. In the other cases, however, a greater 
number would be expected to agree with the number of glacial or fluvial epochs 
of which there is evidence in neighboring mountains or valleys. It seems prob- 
able that the iuterfluvial epoch preceding the fonnation of the first terrace was 
of unusual length, or of unusual character in some respect, so that traces of earlier 
lacustrine action were destroyed. Such a supposition is supported b)- the great gap 
which we have seen to exist at Kogneh and at Bajistan between the tsvo lower 
terraces and those above them. 
