132 Reports and Proceedings — 



The author refrained from attempting any lengthened treatment 

 of so large a subject as the geolog} r of this region, having already 

 contributed various reports and papers to the mass of information 

 existing in some forty publications which formed the geological 

 literature of the Eange during the last fifty-seven years. Of these 

 numerous publications, some, if not absolutely mythological, trenched 

 largely upon the limits of romance; some, like Dr. Fleming's, were 

 most valuable records of close scientific observation ; and others, 

 such as Dr. Jameson's, possessed historic interest, and showed 

 the difficulties under which the pioneers of geological research 

 explored that country. This officer related how — in his progress 

 through the then native territory of the Salt Range, etc., in order to 

 investigate the causes of those debacles which sometimes carry de- 

 vastation along the course of the Upper Indus towards the Plains— 

 his party was beset in the Kotul Pass in the year 1841, his followers 

 killed, and his personal effects and MS. notes all plundered by 

 Afridi robbers, he himself escaping with his life only to be im- 

 prisoned in the fort at Koluit. 



Some reference to the position, etc., of the Salt Eange was neces- 

 sary, in order that people at this distance from that locality — some 

 5000 to 6000 miles — might more readily comprehend the references 

 to be made. The Eange was described as subtending that angle of 

 Northern India embraced between the Great Himalayan and Suliman 

 Mountains. It would almost appear to have yielded to the thrust 

 from these vast masses at each end so as to have assumed curvature 

 amounting to sigmoid flexure along the strike, in the effort to adapt 

 itself, so to speak, to restricted limits ; while its geological series 

 forming a semi-anticlinal arch, as a dominant feature, presented a 

 grand facade of precipices with a general height of 2000 feet, and a 

 culminating one of over 5000 feet above the sea ; overlooking the 

 plains and deserts to the south, and rising from amongst chaotic 

 masses, the wreckage and ruins of their own materials. On the 

 north it sloped more gently beneath the elevated steppe-like plateau 

 of Eawul Pindi, this having a height of 1600 to 1700 feet above sea- 

 level. 



The range possesses interest geologically, as affording almost the 

 only opportunity of studying an extensive series, embracing groups 

 belonging to nearly all the chief periods from early Palasozoic to 

 later Kainozoic time; geographically interposed between the re- 

 markably dissimilar geological areas of Peninsular India and the 

 Himalaya, each of which had a geological history peculiarly its 

 own. But the Salt Eange was also important by reason of the great 

 value of its inexhaustible mineral resources ; its 500 feet of rock 

 salt beds, traceable for 130 miles, producing an increasing annual 

 revenue, some years since estimated at over £382,650 sterling ; 

 resources which now require a special branch railway and bridge 

 across the Eiver Jhelum (the ancient Hydaspes) to transport 

 the salt. 



Certain varieties in the relative fullness of the sections displayed 

 at the centre and at each end of the Eange were described, such as 



