﻿1850.] 



VICARY ON THE UPPER PUNJAUB. 



41 



the edges of the heds occasionally showing themselves at the surface 

 all the way. 



The Bukkur-Alla Pass is about a mile from Tumiak, and the 

 ascent may be about 500 feet. From this, towards the Murgullee 

 range, a plain, apparently with a somewhat level outline in a general 

 sense, but really an undulating and often broken country, intervenes ; 

 the whole distance being probably about sixty miles. 



Tumiak is situated on a pliocene formation, which, with many inter- 

 vals, is traceable into Peshaur and even into the Khyber Pass, and I 

 think it probable that the low range of hills stretching along the left 

 bank of the Jhilum, from near Julalpoor towards Bhimber, belongs 

 to the same formation. Near Tumiak, on the left bank of the Suhan 

 Iiiver, a good section of this formation is exposed, showing a depth 

 of about 400 feet. It here consists of deep beds of yellow, marly 

 clay, with travertine nodules, and exhibiting near the base of the whole 

 some unconnected beds of a pale soft sandstone. The clay beds are 

 separated by thin beds of boulders, in some places cemented into con- 

 glomerate ; the lowest of these beds is about 1 feet thick, and com- 

 posed of large boulders. In several places the rain-water has found 

 its way through the clay beds down to this bed, and, from its sapping 

 action on the clay, has formed many somewhat circular deep funnel- 

 shaped pits, some of considerable size, but particularly so near the 

 escarpment. The whole of this formation is nearly horizontal, and, 

 whether in Peshaur or at other intervening places, is in a rapid state 

 of degradation. In a few years, geologically speaking, it will disap- 

 pear. During every fall of rain, large quantities of debris are carried 

 into the water-courses and rivers, the finer portion of which, I have 

 no doubt, contributes to the elevation of the country near Mooltaun 

 and the banks of the Indus. 



Hence to Pukkaderaee 14*3 miles. The pliocene is here cut into 

 deep ravines, showing perpendicular sections, particularly at the 

 Seraee. 



Twelve miles and a half farther on to Munikyala, chiefly over the 

 pliocene clays, but the edges of underlying red shales and sandstones 

 occasionally come to the surface. The country round Munikyala is 

 undulating : on looking over the surface, it appears like an extensive 

 plain, but it is much broken and cut up into ravines. 



Hence to Hoormuk, on the left bank of the Sewan river, ten miles, 

 partly over the same pliocene ; near an old Seraee, and about the 

 sixth mile, the conglomerate beds, sandstone, and red shale are 

 pushed above the general level, the sandstone and conglomerate 

 forming walls more than 100 feet in height, with a strike north-east 

 and south-west, the dip from 85° to 90° south. The red shales and 

 clays form the thickest beds ; and here too, from the action of the 

 elements, they have been degraded into troughs, and even ravines, 

 leaving the harder sandstone and conglomerate to form either walls 

 above the general level, or sharp precipitous escarpments to the ra- 

 vines. However, in this neighbourhood, and indeed to the Bukkur- 

 Alla Pass, the upturned edges of these beds have a tolerably equal 

 elevation. Looking over the plain east and west, the country ap- 



