'The Expedition for the survey of the rivers Euphrates and Tigris, carried on by order of the British government, in the years 1835, 1836, and 1837; preceded by geographical and historical notices of the regions situated between the rivers Nile and Indus. In four volumes. With fourteen maps and charts, and embellished with ninety-seven plates, besides numerous wood-cuts. Volume the first.' [‎73] (120/905)

CHAP. IV.]
THE LA'RISTA r N MOUNTAINS.
73
outline, with steep sides/ which are in some places scarped
into precipitous ravines by the action of the streams, whilst
in others nature has perfected her work, by the formation of
deep, winding, and well watered valleys.
Opposite Kirman-shah the chain bends more eastward. The Bakhtiyan
and, under the denomination of the Laristan mountains, it mountains -'
runs towards Shuster, where it takes the name of its dominant
tribe, the Bakhtiyari, which name it preserves as far as Bei-
bahan. Eastward of this place it is called the Hetzerdara,
or Thousand Mountains ; it incloses the basin of Shiraz, and
constitutes those ranges of naked, barren hills, which diversify
the plain of Merdasht, one portion being the royal mountain
of Persepolis. 2 A little way southward of the capital of Fars
the chain curves to the S.E., and runs parallel to the coast
at a distance of about 20 miles; the breadth of the chain
being rather greater than that distance, and having an eleva
tion of about 5000 feet as it approaches Cape Jask. Eastward
of the latter point it skirts the shores of Mekran, rather
decreasing in height until, near the banks of the Indus, it is
lost in the Hala mountains. Where it has been examined,
the formation is sandstone, limestone, gypsum, clays, and
marls. 3 The brown, bare, and furrowed appearance belong
ing to the first of these rocks, seems to be the prevailing
character of this part of the chain; the sides and crests of
which are generally deprived of vegetation; but the valleys,
where they happen to be irrigated, produce the plantain, date,
and other fruits, as well as grain.
The other chain skirts the northern side of Iran. The Course of the
first part of it (the Masula mountains) quits the plateau of branclTof the
Ararat towards the eastern side of Karabagh, taking a Taurus -
southerly direction from the banks of the Aras, along the
western side of the plains of Talish. Thence it inclines east
ward of south, skirting the western side of Ghilan as far as
the pass of Rudbar, in three parallel ridges, with occasionally
an elevation of 6000 or 7000 feet above the plain. From
1 MS. Journal of Mr. A. A. Staunton's Journey, returning from the Expe
dition.
2 Ainsworth's Assyria and Babylonia, p. 233. 3 Ibid., p. 226.
VOL. I. ^