86 Scientific Proceedings, Royal Dublin Society. 



important — geologically, because it is one of the only instances 

 "within the great realm of India affording the opportunity of 

 studying the structure of more, very much more, than the mere 

 surface deposits overspreading the border lands which intervene 

 between the almost totally distinct areas of the ancient peninsular 

 Indian formations, and the, geologically speaking, as a rule, more 

 modern systems, of which the Himalayan and Suliman mountains 

 are composed. In these two great regions, even though certain 

 contemporaneous formations may exist, the representative groups 

 belonging to each are found to possess most marked dissimilarity 

 of character. 



Economically, the Salt Eange is important by reason of the 

 inexhaustible mineral wealth represented in its enormous deposits 

 of rock-salt. Extending through a distance of 130 miles, with a 

 known thickness in parts of 550 feet, these deposits have de- 

 manded the construction of a special railway, and the bridging of 

 a great river, the Jhelum (or Hydaspes of the Ancients), to facili- 

 tate the transport of the salt, while the latest information at my 

 command showed the (then increasing) annual salt revenue, to 

 equal £382,653 sterling, although but a few of the mines known 

 were being worked by Government, and the railway I have alluded 

 to was not in existence. 



One strikingly-pronounced peculiarity of the geological sections 

 displayed by the whole range is, that the series, as found in the 

 centre and at either end, differ all three as to their com- 

 prehensiveness ; groups present in the east die out to the west, 

 while others come into those sections, notably the Carboniferous 

 and Ceratite-beds, and at times some portions, like the typical 

 Olive-beds, disappear both to the east and to the westward. The 

 whole arrangement, though accompanied by some considerable 

 evidence of overlap, shows a continuous tranquillity of deposition 

 and succession, without intervening violent disturbance of any 

 kind, between two constant horizons, that of the salt marl below, 

 and that of the Tertiary formation at the top of the series — that 

 is to say, from a period not newer than Silurian (according to com- 

 petent Palaeontologists) through all the eeons of Palaeozoic, Meso- 

 zoic, and Kainozoie time, up to the date of the Miocene or later 

 disturbances to which the Salt Range, as well as the Himalaya 

 and Suliman mountains, mainly owe their origin. 



