FLEMING ON THE SALT RANGE OF THE PUNJAUB. 199 



of stratified rocks dipping, at an angle of 45°, apparently under the 

 Salt Range, and with a strike parallel to it. The most extensive of 

 these ridges is about two miles long, and its highest peak is about 

 800 feet above the plain. Around this are smaller ridges which 

 emerge from the plain parallel to the larger one within a space of 

 perhaps six or seven miles. These ridges are formed of highly ferru- 

 ginous and other quartzose sandstones, some of which are in many 

 places distinctly ripple-marked, and quartzose clay-slate, into which 

 the sandstones pass. Some of the sandstones resemble the hardest 

 varieties of Scottish old red sandstone. The whole formation is in- 

 tersected with quartz-veins loaded with rich hsematitic iron-ore. The 

 slates appear to be quite unfossiliferous. Dr. A. Fleming is disposed 

 to regard these ridges as outliers which rise out from beneath the 

 lowermost rocks of the Salt Range, and which are not seen along the 

 range itself. 



During the hot season in 1851, Dr. A. Fleming, being at the 

 new Hill-station on the Murree Range, was enabled to carry on 

 his researches in another district. " Murree," he says, " is the highest 

 point (7000 feet above the sea) of one of a series of ranges which, 

 rising from the eastern part of the plain between the Jelum and 

 the Indus, N. of the Salt Range, stretch up in a N.N.E. direction 

 towards the Jelum, and seem to be identical with the ranges E. of 

 the Jelum which flank the snowy range of the Peer Punjal. By 

 one only who has been five and a half years amidst the hot winds 

 and dust of the plains of the Punjaub, can the beauties of real hills 

 be fully appreciated. Here we have everything to remind one of 

 home. On the northern slope of all the hills in this neighbourhood 

 are to be seen the most magnificent forests of pine, oak, horse- 

 chestnut, willow, &c., with a thick underwood of hawthorn, barberry, 

 bird-cherry, bramble, &c. The woods abound with Solomon' s-seal, 

 Aaron's-rod, woodruff, and wild strawberries ; while the more open 

 spots are carpeted with turf covered vnth white clover, buttercups, 

 and dandelions. Ferns, too, are abundant, but I have only seen 

 three species of three genera, — Adiantum, Asplenium, and the com- 

 mon English brake — Pteris aquilina. The sun is the only thing 

 that reminds one that this is not the land of our birth. In tents 

 I have not yet seen the temperature above 78°, but outside, from 

 10 A.M. until 4 P.M., the heat is, to say the least, unpleasant. At 

 sunrise the temperature is frequently as low as 50°. 



"The geology of this place and neighbourhood is particularly 

 interesting. I have only examined the range on which Murree is 

 situated, from Rawal Pindee, upwards, a distance of forty miles, and 

 generally it may be described as formed of an iron-grey calcareous 

 sandstone, dipping to the N.W. at an angle of from 40° to 50°, and, 

 as far as I have yet seen, devoid of fossils. The southern side of 

 the range is rather steep, but the inclination sufficient to retain a 

 considerable thickness of soil, which for some distance up the side of 

 the hills yields fair crops of wheat, barley, &c., at the season, and 



