178 SUB-HIMALAYAN ROCKS OF N. W. INDIA. [CHAP. VII. 



spring, or at least saline water, must remain for what it is worth ; but it 

 can be asserted with much certainty, that salt in this position can have 

 no connection with that at Mundi, or in the Salt- Range, nor yet with the 

 saliferous system of England. The name given to the river by the 

 natives, Noon or Loon, the word in the hill vernacular for salt, has I am 

 satisfied had much to say to confirming a belief in the presence of the 

 mineral. 



Iron. — At very many places throughout the hills, iron ore occurs in 

 sufficient quantity to be worked by natives for local demand. But at 

 several places excellent ore occurs in profusion; I may mention the 

 vicinity of Ramgur in Kumaon, Shele east of Simla, and Kohad in 

 Chota Bhagul. The ores are magnetic, and micaceous iron; they 

 appeared to me to be metamorphic deposits, and are probably more or 

 less strictly representative of each other throughout the middle zone 

 of the Lower Himalaya. The ores which attract the most notice as 

 likely to give a return to manufacturing enterprise on a large scale, 

 are those occurring at or near the base of the mountains. The only 

 well-known deposit of this kind is at the foot of the Naini Tal hills, 

 in the clays at the base of the lignite sandstone. The ore is an 

 irregularly segregated red haematite, with in some places a con- 

 siderable proportion of brown haematite. The whole stratum, ten to 

 twenty feet thick, is sometimes workable ; elsewhere it is no more 

 than a ferruginous clay. There have been extensive preparations made 

 to work this ore at Kalidoongi and Dechourie ; the only apparent 

 obstacle to complete success is want of communications, — means of com- 

 manding a market. The question has been very fully discussed in several 

 reports to the Government of India. Whether this ore can be found 

 at other places along the same line of hills is a matter of much interest. 

 Very strong statements have been made in favour of its occurrence. 

 There is no doubt that it is- represented uninterruptedly along this 

 zone as far as the true Nahun band extends. I have mentioned 



