1853,] FLEMING SOOLIMAN RANGE. 347 



reaches the Indus. As very little rain falls in the Derajat, the natives 

 for agricultural purposes (wells being very scarce, and water found in 

 them at from 100 to 150 feet deep) endeavour to detain the water in 

 its onward course as long as possible, and for this means all the 

 country is traversed by "bunds" or embankments parallel to the hills, 

 inside which they plough the ground and sow their scanty crops. 

 As but little rain falls even in the hills in the cold weather, the cold- 

 weather or wheat crop is a very precarious one, and in a season of 

 drought, such as this has been, almost a failure. The rain or hot- 

 weather crop, consisting of millet, Indian corn, &c., is a much more 

 successful one and of more importance. Water-power and popula- 

 tion only are wanted to convert the whole district referred to into a 

 rich corn-field, the saline matter it contains not being in such quan- 

 tity as to be deleterious to wheat crops, if means of irrigation are 

 available. 



Separating the alluvial desert tract just noticed from the Sooli- 

 man Ranges is a belt of boulder deposit, varying in breadth from 

 two to four miles : the boulders are larger and more numerous as 

 we ascend towards the hiils, on the strata of which they rest un- 

 conformably. The boulders occurring in this deposit appear to 

 have been derived from the constituent rocks of the Soolimans. 

 Some are of primitive or metamorphic rocks ; but they chiefly consist 

 of the sandstones and boulders forming conglomerates in the first or 

 outer range of hills. These latter are of a character identical with the 

 later Tertiary (Miocene?) or Sevalik strata of the Salt Range. They 

 present in outline the same jagged character, and consist of alter- 

 nations of sandstone (calcareous, and sometimes only indurated sand), 

 calcareous grit, conglomerates, and indurated clays ; and they every- 

 where present on their surface a saline efflorescence more or less 

 distinct. In the outer range they dip at a very high angle to 

 the E., and in some places are almost vertical. In the Mungrota 

 or Sungurh Pass, into which on the 24th I made a short excursion, 

 accompanied by troopers with loaded carbines, these miocene ? strata 

 occur on either side with an easterly dip for about two miles ; the 

 harder ridges of sandstone which cross the pass forming as fine 

 natural defences as could anywhere be found ; and indeed the Bosdar 

 tribe who inhabit the hills at this point are by no means loath to use 

 them as such, while covering the retreat of any of their brethren 

 who may be returning from a foray in the plains. 



On proceeding about two miles up the Sungurh Pass in a nearly 

 west direction, the miocene ? strata give place to beds of nummulite 

 limestone, enclosing several species of Nummulite, and one very large 

 species nearly an inch in diameter. Beds of this limestone alternate 

 with dark bituminous clays, in which an Ostrea similar to one I got 

 in the Salt Range is abundant, and under these a dark broAvn slaty 

 calcareous sandstone, also containing numerous examples of a similar 

 shell. Beneath this sandstone niunmulite limestone again appeared, 

 and seemed to form a second range, the strata of which dipped to the 

 E. conformably at a similar and very high angle under the miocene? 

 strata. Not deeming it safe to go beyond the nummulite limestone 



