'GAZETTEER OF PERSIA. VOL. III.' [‎124r] (252/982)

Physical characteristics .—The physical features of Dashti are few and
simple. The principal one is of course the great maritime range, which
runs south-eastwards and forms an almost continuous background to the
district. Six miles to the north-east of Khurmuj it rises in a grand peak
6,430 feet high, which is generally known as Kuh-i-Khurmuj, but possesses
also the more distinctive name of Kuh Bairami. Below Khurmuj
town, for 15 or 20 miles, the main range is fronted, towards Dashti, by an
outwork of low, sandstone hills called the Kuh-i-Khaki, terminated at
its south-east end by a gap 4 or 5 miles wide, through which the Mund
river issues from the highlands of Bars. South of the Mund gap the main
range, at first under the name of Kuh-i-Namak, resumes its course, and
finally impinges on the coast at Kang an a few miles beyond the end ol
the district. Kuh Bairami is a huge mass of limestone, having a quaquaver-
sal dip, and is sometimes crowned with snow for two or three days in winter.
Kuh-i-Namak, 4,000 feet high, is of sandstone below, and towards the
summit consists largely of salt, which is visible from afar as glistening
streaks of white or grey.
A minor but important feature is the sandstone coast range, reaching a
height of over 2,500 feet, which bears the name of Kuh-i-Mand or Kuh-i-
Kar and is described in the article on the Tangistan district, to which it
partly belongs, and in this Gazetteer —vide Kuh-i-Mand. The trough contain
ed between this subordinate range and the maiu range is the Khurmuj
valley, extending from near Ahram to the Mund river, with a length of
30 and a breadth of several miles, a string of palm leaf villages extends
along its western side, and there are a few also upon the east ; it drains by
a longitudinal channel called Shur, which is 10 yards broad and contains
above 2 feet of brackish water in places, to the Mund river at Chaghapur.
Kiih-i-Namak is adjoined on its southern side by a range of which the
highest point (3,270 feet) is Kuh-i-Dirang, not far from Kuh-i-Namak.
This range runs first southwards for 16 miles and then eastwards for an
equal distance : the result is the enclosing between it and the main range
of a triangular plain, called Bu Saif, which has no open exit except at its
south-eastern corner on the coast between Daiyir and Kangan. Kuh-i-
Dirang is of sandstone, and is co-miected with Kuh-i-Namak by mounds of
sandstone and gypsum intersected by ravines containing brackish water.
Dashti thus consists of two plains or valleys which both drain south-east
wards, and are separated from one another by the plain or serpentine valley
of the Mund river, of which the average direction is at right angles to
theirs.
The coast of Dashti has not been thoroughly explored, and part of it is
unapproachable by vessels owing to extensive shoals. Six miles off the
mainland at about 27 miles south-south-east of Khur Ziarat, and approxi
mately the same distance west of Daiyir, is a low islet, § a mile in diameter,
called Nakhilu : it appears to be the meeting-place of several hydrogra
phical features, and marks the point where the direction of the coast changes
from south-south-east to full east. From Nakhilu a great shoal,
called Ras-ul-Mutaf, runs for nearly 20 miles to the east-south-east with a
deep channel inside, which is open to the east, but blind at the other end
except for a boat passage round the north side of Nakhilu ; and between