SON PLATEAU. 231 



The Varcha salt mines are situated on the right side of the gorge, not 

 far from its mouth, the entrance to the mines 



I' TrOilfl. silt 1X111169 



having been excavated through the lavender clays 

 at 'the top of the speckled sandstone group. For 100 feet into the mine 

 these beds and purple clays, or marls, are passed through, too irregularly 

 stratified to afford much information, but the general dip is to the west 

 at 30°. Within, the mine is worked in the usual salt and salt-marl : 

 it is a very extensive excavation which follows a 20-feet bed of salt 

 dipping at 20° to west-20°-north, and also to the north-west, the angle 

 growing steeper as the salt bed descends. The general strike is from 

 east-north-east to north-east, and the length of the mine is some 450 feeto 

 The salt is of the usual reddish white colour. In one part of the mine 

 old workings exist, without pillars, to support the roofs of the large and 

 dangerous chambers left by the old miners. At the north-eastern end of 

 the mine is the old Sikh entrance, and near it are some large vertical 

 natural shafts with curiously fluted or moulded sides, showing the great 

 thickness of the salt. (See fig. 42, plate XXV.) 



Salt is also known in other places in the glen, but on its left side, just 

 opposite to the mines, the salt bed (i£ present) is concealed, probably by 

 land-slips. 



At some distance up the gorge beyond the mines, the flaggy and 

 Flaggy beds in red shaly, grey gypseous and dolomitic bands occasion- 

 ™^^ ■ ally met with in the red marl, appear more fre- 



quently than is usual, and at one spot, though contorted and slipped, close 

 on the bank of the stream, they have the following arrangement (see 

 fig. 43, plate XXIII) :— 



Variegated purple clays ... ... .,, 10 feet. 



Gypseous layer ... ... ... ... 1 „• 



Purple and green and grey clay ... ... ... 5 „ 



Strong rugged bands of wbite gypsum ... ... 4 „ 



Greenish grey clay shale, black where wet, weathering 



whitish ,,. ... ... ... 5 „ 2 inches, 



(? 10 feet if not slipped.) 



( 231 ) 



