8 WYNNE : GEOLOGY OP THE SALT RANGE IN THE PUNJAB. 



Of the coal of Kalabagh he says that 2,000 maunds had been 

 collected, for which the people (valuing it from its supposed medicinal 

 qualities) demanded Rs. 4 per pucka maund. He thought no good fuel 

 would be discovered there, basing his opinion upon the idea that valuable 

 coal only occurred in the carboniferous formation, and apparently 

 unaware that there were rocks of that period within a few miles. He 

 grouped the coal and sulphur-bearing beds [alum shales] of Kalabagh 

 with the salt marl. Among the riches of the country he enumerates 

 gold, iron, sulphur, salt, gypsum, limestone, and saltpetre. The gold 

 was of course the small quantity of that metal obtained by stream- 

 washing from the Indus at Kalabagh; the sources of the iron and 

 saltpetre are not given. 



In 1843, Dr. Jameson's " Report^ of his deputatiou hj Government 



to examine the effects of the great inundation of 



Dr. Jameson, 1843. .i t i }} i-v i j tt • j i 



the Indus was published. He experienced much 



difficulty in consequence of the loss of almost all his notes, his baggage, 

 collections, &c., when attacked and driven back by the Afridis, at the 

 Kotul Pass, followed by his confinement in the Fort of Kohat. He 

 speaks of the lowest stratum in the range at several places as being of 

 magnesian limestone. He perhaps alludes to some thin flaggy dolomitic 

 layers in the red salt marl, but these cannot be said to occupy the position 

 attributed to them. 



His rock descriptions are not always sufficiently clear for re- 

 cognition. He asserts that the Salt Range is parallel to the central or 

 high mountain range of the Himalaya.t 



The alum slate of Kalabagh is said to alternate with the red 

 marl. The manufacture of alum from the slate by lixiviation, &c., is 

 described, and the produce is stated to have fetched Rs. 19-4 per 6 



* Journal of the Asiatic Society, Bengal, 1843, Vol. XII, p. 183, &c. 



t Elphinstone, previously mentioned, seems to have written before this word was 

 corrupted into the present foi-m as above ; he spells it " Hcmallch," which closely approxi- 

 mates to the way natives of Upper India pronounce it. 



( 8 ) 



