116 WYNNE : GEOLOGY OF THE SALT RANGE IN THE PUNJAB. 



On the different high plateaux where the angles of slope of the 



ground are lowest, a fine argillaceous silt washed 



Plateaux silt or wash. « .i • i i • i -n • j -j. j j !> 



trom the neighbouring hills is depositea and lorms 



some of the richest soil to be found near the 



range. 



In very many places, and, of course, most frequently in the vicinity 



of the limestone rocks or on their surface, very large 



Calcareous tufa. • o -i o ^ • -ny j ■* 



deposits of calcareous tufa occur enclosing rlanovois 



or Helix-\\kQ land and marsh shells, sometimes fragments of land-crabs, 



and often, as usual in such deposits, beautiful impressions of leaves. 



The salts of the lakes and the ' hallar ' often found along streams, or 



on the ground on both sides of the ranere, beinff 



Salts of lakes, «kallar.' ^ * &^ & 



derived from efflorescence and collected by water 



in many cases, may also be included among the recent deposits. 



South-west of Mari, on both sides of the stream which flows 

 through an open hollow in the range near Khyra- 



kSS"^ ^^^^ ^^^^ ^^^* ^^® ^^"^® ^^^^^ rounded or elongated hills 

 of drab clay, extensively mingled with gypsum. 

 They occur in the neighbourhood of seen or supposed faults, and if not 

 a product of local streams which first deposited and then excavated a 

 passage through them, they may be re-arranged portions of the red marl 

 itself. It has been supposed that this gypsum here was the result of 

 decomposition of limestone by sulphurous springs ; if so, the action 

 must have taken place to a very large extent. 



The deposit bears no similarity to the Sabathu gypsum of the north- 

 ern side of the Potwar, and, on the whole, subterranean waters may 

 have been its most likely source. 



In a paper on the former extension of glaciers within the Kangra 



District, Mr. Theobald alludes to Dr. Verchere's 



Supposed glacial period, notice of the erratic blocks north of the Salt 



Range; he assigns to these blocks a different 



( 116 ) 



