On the Nature and Probable Origin of the Superficial Deposits in the Valleys and Deserts of Central Persia

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Abstract
Large Area covered by Superficial Deposits .—Deposits of large and small pebbles, gravel, clay, and sand, of geologically recent origin, and very often of thickness sufficient to conceal all older formations, cover an enormous area in Persia*; probably more than one half of the surface of the country is occupied by them, whilst both their nature and their extent are rendered conspicuous by the general want of vegetation. This abundance of what, for want of a better term, I call superficial deposits, appears at first sight more remarkable, because of the general absence of rivers in Persia, and the small rainfall. So far as I can judge from description, the greater part of Central Asia much resembles Persia in its physical characters; and throughout Turkestan, Afghanistan, and Tibet there is the same aridity, small rainfall, absence or scarcity of rivers, and paucity of cultivated land, combined with the same recurrence of broad desert plains surrounded by barren mountains. Physical Geography and Rainfall of Persia .—But an imperfect idea of the physical geography of Persia can be obtained from maps. The country consists of a great plateau from 1200 to 3000 feet above the sea, or rather of a series of plains of that height, separated by smaller ranges from each other, and divided from the lowlands of Turkestán and the Caspian provinces to the north, the Tigris and Euphrates valleys to the west, Laristán and Balúchistán to the south, and India to the east, by a broad belt of mountainous country, containing

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