ECONOMIC RESOURCES : SALT. 289 



at the Salt Rang'e. There are large remains of old Sikh workings and 

 great natural shafts or vertical water-courses, a sketch of one of which 

 has been given (see PI. XXV). The old workers here, as elsewhere, 

 left the roof unsupported, and it is falling in, but in the modern mine 

 this is provided against. While the salt-bed continues to dip, as it at 

 present does (30° toN. W. ), no alternation in the mode of working 

 (according to Dr. Warth) will be needed. The mine is well ventilated 

 and clean, and has two modes o£ ingress, but no low-level water-escape. 



The Kalabagh workings are all " at daylight,'^ in a thick group of 

 salt-beds, ranging from 4 to 10 or even 30 feet each. They run along 

 the right side of the Lun or Gossai Nala (or Drung gorge), the salt 

 being found to extend from the base of the hill as high up as 200 feet; 

 but the beds are not all sufficiently good to be worked, 20 feet being the 

 largest known thickness of a workable salt-bed here. All the beds dip 

 west at nearly 70°. The salt outcrop extends for some two miles up the 

 glen, and there are fourteen working places or quarries.'^ 



Besides those mentioned there are numbers of old mines, about which 

 nothing is known, while some that have been inspected were found to pro- 

 mise large supplies of salt. Several of the old mines occur in the Jutana 

 and Kusak beats, four in the Makrach beat, three in that of Malot; 

 eight in Sardi beat, four in the Nilawan ravine, three in the hills about 

 Musakhel, and several at Mari. 



The old Jutana mines were being worked when Dr. Jameson visited 

 the Salt Range in 1843, and had then been open twenty, thirty, and 

 thirty-five years. The descent into the body of the mine was accomplish- 

 ed by steps cut in the salt, and the workings seem to have been i^rge, but 

 as irregular as usual in the Sikh excavations. The salt was removed in 

 masses, two of which were a load for a camel ; also in smaller pieces with 

 which to load oxen. The miners were paid one anna per maund for ex- 

 tracting the salt, and this was sold for a rupee per pucka maund. The 



* Dr. Warth's Report, already quoted. 



n2 ( 289 ) 



