‘Military report on south-west Persia, including the provinces of Khúzistán (Arabistan), Luristán and part of Fars.’ [‎201v] (407/470)

364
At Imam Mir A'chmet, between B&slit and Faylaun (Fablidn), the
neighbouring range is composed as follows
b (1) Hard, yellow, compact, crystalline limestone, probably belonging to
' y limpsf,onfl. In the lowest beds it becomes cream-
coloured, and passes into—•
(2) Hard, reddish, grey or cream-coloured lithographic A lithograph is an image reproduced from a printing plate whose image areas attract ink and non-image areas repel it. limestone, very
V ^ compact, but splitting into thin layers, with abundant specimens of
ammonites (crushed), gryjihcea, serpula, tellina, and voluta.
Interstratitied with this limestone are numerous tabular layers of a black
siliceous substance giving out a remarkably strong odour of bitumen
when struck.
(3) Highly crystalline, blue, foetid limestone.
At the pass between the plains of Sar Ab-i-Sir and laylaun (Section,
fi*. 7 ), the blue limestone ( 5 ) is much contorted and surrounded by the
yellow’ ( 4 ), which appears to be conformably deposited upon it.
In this neighbourhood the yellow limestone constitutes the summits of
many isolated l-abiilar forts, and rests on a base of blue limestone. The
notorious KaFa Safid is a fine example of this.
IV.— Paleozoic Rocks.
The only instance in which undoubted deposits of this age were observed
by me was on the east side of the Kuh-i-Kellar range, between Naugun
and the plain of Cheraghur (Chigakhor ,—see page 285) in the heart of the
Bakhtian Mountains. This range is composed of the ambiguous, altered,
blue limestone ; but I had only an opportunity of examining an insignificant
portion of it, overlooking the plain of Cheraghur, where I gained no in
formation whatever. Just before entering the plain from the west, however,
I stumbled upon two or three blocks of highly crystalline grey limestone,
weathering rusty-yellow, filled with a species of ort/ris, which Mr. J. Morris
considers as a form intermediate between the Devonian and Silurian species.
Want of time during a hasty journey prevented my giving the locality
the attention it deserved; but I was informed by the natives that at the
summit of the range are great quantities of similar fossils.
With the orthis are associated a small nucula and a few other indistinct
fossil forms,
V.— Metamorphic Schists.
In the more disturbed portions of the blue limestone we have nothing
whatever to guide us in determining the age of the underlying rocks.
In immediate juxtaposition with the igneous rocks are vast deposits of
dark-blue, indurated, calcareous, and fissile clay slates, which extend on the
west of Kuh Elvvend (Alwand) from the district of Fendun, in the Bakhtian,
through the plains of Burujird and Nehawand, to Essadabad. On the east of
the same chain they continue along the skirts of the same range to Hamadan.
VI.— Plutonic Rocks.
Granites. Along the southern portion of the frontier no igneous rocks
are exposed in its immediate vicinity; but the central axis of the chain at