﻿1850.] 



VICARY ON THE UPPER PUNJAUB. 



45 



myself with the most angular and freshly detached boulders obtained 

 from the water-courses leading from the mountains. In some of 

 these (limestone) I detected a small Spirifer, Orthis in abundance, 

 a Terebratula ?, and some Polyparia. But I fear some time will 

 elapse before more conclusive information with respect to the geolo- 

 gical history of the Khyber mountains can be obtained*. 



For these notes which were made on the roadside, during the pur- 

 suit of the flying Seiks by the division under General Gilbert, and 

 eventually to the Khyber Pass, in pursuit of Dost Mahommed and 

 his Afghauns, I have to crave some apology. I could only record 

 whatever came under my observation on the line of march, and was 

 unable to devote the time and attention which strict geological inves- 

 tigation demands. I believe, however, that I have been able to bring 

 to notice the existence of a deep-bedded and extensive pliocene forma- 

 tion, extending, with intervals, from the Jhilum river to the Khyber 

 Pass. The formation, holding a westerly dip near Piotas and the vil- 

 lage of Bukkur-Alla in which fossil bones were observed, I should 

 approximate to the age of the Sewalik range of hills flanking the 

 base of the Himalayas, and which have been so ably illustrated by 

 the labours of Dr. H. Falconer and Captain Cautley. Dr. A. 

 Fleming, who visited Pind-Dadun-Khan and the salt-mines, appears 

 to have met with the same formation near Baghauwala and Mount 

 Tillaf. I stated above that the Rotas hills were a prolongation from 

 the base of Mount Tilla to the eastward. 



The red shales and clays, sandstone and conglomerate beds beneath, 

 to which I have ventured to apply the term Eocene, are, I have reason 

 to think, the same formation so productive of salt near Pind-Dadun- 

 Khan. It is true that, with the exception of fossil bones, I found 

 nothing in these beds to enable me to identify them ; but Dr. Fle- 

 ming's account of the salt-yielding shales % leads me to this conclusion. 

 Further, I believe that the red shales near Subathoo belong to the 

 same series ; and this observation gathers weight when we remember 

 that salt§ is obtained from the red shales of the Mundee district, on 

 the right bank of the Sutlege, within fourteen miles of Belaspoor and 

 hardly fifty miles N.N.W. of Subathoo. Dr. H. Falconer in a letter 

 to me states that he found these red shales, &c. between Nahu and 

 the Choor mountain, about sixty or seventy miles south-west of this 

 (Subathoo), and also mentions his suspicion that they correspond in 

 age with the red shales and limestones noticed by him in the salt 

 range of the Upper Punjaub. 



I continued my exploration of Subathoo and its vicinity during 

 the last cold season, and can now with certainty state that fossil 



armed Khyberees ; they fired at him, and during his hasty flight, the horse refusing 

 a leap, he was thrown ; fortunately, however, he again caught his horse, and 

 escaped without injury. 



* Dr. Falconer obtained specimens of Spirifer, Orthis, and other palaeozoic forms, 

 from these mountains some years ago. 



f Vide Calc. Journ. As. Soc, No." 205. p. 673. t loc. cit. 



§ This salt is called Goomba ; it is very dark-coloured and impure ; much fine 

 gravel is often diffused through its substance, some of the grains of which have an 

 organic appearance {Foraminiferal). 



