'IRAQ AND THE PERSIAN GULF' [‎87v] (179/862)

HHnSmHHHBHHBESBSBH
IIO GEOLOGY AND DESCRIPTION OF THE LAND
where tobacco, oats, barley, and vines are grown by the townsmen of
Ruwandiz. It is an unusual feature among these mountains, and
forms the only ground sufficiently open for a small air landing-ground.
Its northern end is crossed by the Rubar-i-Dubor, which joins the
Balikian after draining an extensive fan-shaped basin cut out of the
covering rocks of the nappe zone. The region here was once a tilted
plateau, mostly from 4,000 to 6,000 feet above sea-level, but has
apparently been fractured along the east-west line of the Barasgird
valley on the north, and eroded by drainage to the Dubor from all
directions. The northern watershed of the Dubor is therefore within
2 miles of the Barasgird, and several easy natural routes with good
water-supply lead up the Dubor tributaries, with steep, short, wind
ing descents to the Barasgird valley or, in the east, with sharp zigzag
ascents to the Kalishin, Barbazin, or Minber passes over the Persian
boundary.
None of the mountains in the nappe zone exhibit the fundamental
pattern of the more southerly ranges already described, except on the
west of the Dubor basin where Ser-i-Piran (6,231 ft.) has been almost
isolated from the Dubor summit to the south-east. An easy mule-
path passes between them over the Khajija pass (c. 4,400 ft.) into
western tributaries of the Dubor. Many of the slopes are well wooded
and north of the Khajija pass the streams are lined with thick woods
of oak and plane-trees growing up to 20 or 30 feet high.
South-east of the Dubor basin the mountains form a confused knot,
with the limestone Zozik Dagh and Bin-i-Sar forming the northern
wall of the Berserini gorge. The nappe covering piles up against this
range, but has been deeply eroded by the Rust stream and its tributary
ravines, to form a secluded fertile amphitheatre harbouring many
villages, shut in on the south by the Bin-i-Sar and enclosed on the
north and east by long, narrow, jagged buttresses descending from
the massif of snow-covered Algurd Dagh (12,229 ft -) close to the
Persian border. The northern buttress ends with Ser-i-Hasan Beg
(8,405 ft.) on the west; Gerwa Kotin (9,887 ft.) is the southern end
of the eastern buttress. The amphitheatre can only be reached by
difficult tracks and forms an easily defended sanctuary, where many
Kurds sought refuge during the Russian invasion in 1916.
Little is known of the country between the upper Barasgird (Rubar-
i-Shakiv) and the Haji Beg. The mountains form two long forbidding
south-westerly spurs separated by the Kwakura, under deep snow
in winter, projecting from and exceeding the height of the Persian
watershed. Several summits are over 9>ooo feet, while each spur