4 WYNNE : GEOLOGY OF THE SALT EANGE IN THE PUNJAB. 



is due, however meagre, because the accuracy of some contrasts very 

 favourably with the generality of early writings upon Indian Geology^ 

 while the views put forward in many others cannot be considered 

 established. 



In briefly alluding to these writings, parts having special reference 

 to the geology of the Salt Range or connection with it will demand 

 attention. 



The earliest publication in which I have found any mention of 

 El hinstone 1808— " *^® ^^^^ Bange '' is " Elphinstone^s Caubul/' ^ 

 1815. jje speaks of a branch of the Sufed Koh, " which 



may be called the Salt Range," as shooting out from the Sufed Koh 

 and extending in a south-easterly direction by the south of " Teeree" 

 to " Callabaugh" (Kalabagh), where it crosses the Indus, stretches across 

 part of the Punjab and ends at " Jellaulpoor,"^ on the right bank of the 

 Hydaspes, becoming lower as it gets further from the mountains of 

 " Salimaun.-'-' He says it abounds in salt, which is dug out in various 

 forms at different places. 



In the days when Elphinstone travelled as a British Envoy to the 

 Court of Caubul (Kabul), the whole of the Puujab and Kashmir were 

 included in the Afghan dominions, and the country was so little known 

 that it can be understood how he might have been mistaken as to the 

 continuity of this range. It would appear from the quotation above that 

 the Salt Range owes its present name to this traveller. 



The author describes " Callabaughf or Karrabaugh/' i. e., Kalabagh, 

 with its narrow road cut through solid salt rock, hard, clear, and almost 

 pure, but in some parts tinged and streaked with red — a colour prevailing 



* Account of the Kingdom of Caiibul and its Dependencies, by the Hon'ble Mountstuart 

 Elphinstone, p. 103. London, 1815. 



t The author, adopting the method of spelling the names of places with appropriate 

 English letters, had some slight difficulty to contend with ; yet any one familiar with the 

 native pronunciation of several of the names he uses will observe how faithfully, as he 

 writes them, they convey the sounds which these words have in Upper India, or at least 

 the Upper Punjab. 



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