PHYSICAL PBATUKES. 37 



fine facade of lofty cliffs, bluffs, and precipices overlooking numbers of 

 steep valleys and penetrated by profound ravines or gorges,'^ some of 

 wbicli almost deserve the name of caiions. 



These features contrast strongly with the flatness of the plains below 

 and with the undulating or hilly plateaux which for 76 miles crown 

 the acclivities, or with the more gentle northerly slopes intersected, as 

 they descend to the Potwar, by an intricate labyrinth of deep, narrow, 

 often vertical-sided ravines, such as are rarely seen save in this region, 

 and which have won for it the special name of Kuddera,,-\ from inhabitants 

 generally unobservant of natural features, and often ignorant even of 

 the names of those beyond their own immediate locality. 



The southern escarpment is strongly marked along most of the 

 range, rising to an average height of 2,200 feet 



Southern escarpment. 



above the plains at its foot, which are seldom more 

 than 750 feet above the sea. Lofty portions of it also look down upon 

 the Potwar plateau, the edge of which (with heights averaging 1,824 

 feet) does not reach to within 1,074 feet of the mean height of the Salt 

 Range. 



A very gradual increase of these heights takes place westwards to- 

 wards the most elevated summit, Sakesar, which 

 The Potwar. , ., , ' ' 



is situated 36 miles from the western extremity of 

 the range at the Indus. Here the general elevation is 4,500 feet, and 

 the summit itself has an altitude of 6,010 feet. 



But the Salt Range is not entirely a simple elevated tract strongly 



Variety of form of scarped on one side and surmounted by undulating 



^^'^^^' open plateaux. This is its character in the central 



* This word " gorge " is frequently locally used in speaking of the deep throat-like 

 " gulches" of the range, to which it appears very applicable. 



t A narrow valley in this part of the country is called a " durra " kus or " khnd " ; the 

 affix is taken to mean a multiplicity of forms. A large glen or stream course (dry or other- 

 wise) is called a « Waan " or "Vaan"; as Nila Waan, the blue valley, named after the 

 colour of its stream as seen from above. 



( 37 ) 



