3S4 Mr Uardy'a Outline of the 



by the absence of enclosed organic remains. There are no part- 

 ings interposed between the strata, the sections of the rocks ex- 

 hibiting a succession of huge rectihnear tables, piled directly 

 one on another. These strata are remarkably free from veins or 

 fissures of any kind, and contain few, if any, embedded-mine- 

 rals. » ffUw 



The geology of the more recent sandstones of the Bhurtpoor 

 district may be best studied at Rupbas, a town situated about 

 thirty-two miles in a south-westerly direction from Agra. There 

 are other quarries near the villages of Jugneer, Bussai, and 

 Puharpoor, all of which places lie within a hmited patch of 

 country, distinguished by an undulating surface, and by several 

 low rounded hills formed of the sandstones. iiBi>nfi; pisib 



As far as I have been enabled to ascertain the fact, there are 

 no deposits of rock-salt or gypsum included in the rochjorma-' 

 tions of the Bhurtpoor district. The soil, however, is impreg- 

 nated to a great depth with saline particles, and a saline efflo- 

 rescence very generally appears at the surface. From these 

 sources are manufactured large quantities of a salt called Kha- 

 ree nimuk (i. e. Bitter Salt, a name by-the-by very indefinitely 

 applied to several saline compounds in which sulphate of soda 

 exists as an ingredient), which is used by the natives as a con- 

 diment The salts collected at the surface, together with a 

 quantity of the saline soil, are washed with water from the 

 brackish wells, and the solution thus formed is left to evaporate 

 in shallow pits dug for the purpose. The pits are lined with a 

 thin coating of lime, which is renewed after every deposition. 

 The salt is deposited in cubic crystals, many of which are very 

 perfect and colourless, though occasionally they are tinged with 

 iron ; they have a bitterish taste : the principal ingredient in 

 their composition is chloride of sodium, which is combined with 

 sulphate and carbonate of soda in small proportion, and a mi- 

 nute quantity of iron. A more accurate analysis I bad not an 

 opportunity of makirig. 



The wells from which the salt-water is drawn vary in depth 

 from 42 to 64^ feet^ the richest water being that which is proT 

 cured at the depth of from 51 to 60 feet. This last yields, ac- 

 cording to circumstances, from a chedam to 1 J pin weight (i. e. 

 froln 1 to 3 per cent, by weight), and one well will produce in 

 a season from 100 to 1000 pullahs, a puUah, or bullock-load 



