44 WYNNE : TRANS-INDUS SALT REGION, KOHAT DISTRICT. 



The Sambur Lake, another Indian example, fails also to afford a 

 parallel to the magnitude of the salts in the case before us, and of others 

 so little can be asserted to the contrary, that it may safely be presumed 

 the salt-producing lacustrine or lagoon conditions of the present time are 

 so unequal in comparison as to have no weight in supporting the idea 

 that the causation of the frontier salt deposits was at all the same. 



The structural indications of the manner of accumulation of these 

 salt beds are few and may be briefly mentioned. The frequently perfect 

 stratification of the salt plainly shows repeated or periodic deposition 

 and cessation, while the occurrence of the numerous cases of oblique 

 lamination exactly as in other rocks points to the existence of currents 

 in the depositing water. The freedom of much of the salt from visible 

 impurities or foreign substances testifies to the clearness of the fluid, but 

 it would be unsafe to assert that this water was itself the only source 

 whence the mineral was derived. 



The impregnation of some of the salt with bitumen or petroleum is 

 the only remote indication of anything organic associated with it, and 

 the origin of this is entirely obscure. Salt-forming regions are usually 

 lifeless; no place could well be more so than the Runn of Kutch; the 

 description of the Dead Sea will be familiar, and at the Abyssinian salt 

 regions, Karsten alludes to the absence of living things as enhancing the 

 barren desolation of the dreary scene. 



( H8 ) 



