EXTENSION OK NON-EXTENSION OF THE SALT BEYOND THIS DISTRICT. 73 



est hills,* the ground appeared to be mainly occupied by the soft upper 

 tertiary sandstones, &c, in great undulating masses. 



It is extremely unlikely in a country so traversed by herdsmen, if 

 rock-salt were visible, that even small exposures of it would long escape 

 their notice, or remain generally unknown, and, on the whole, it may be 

 said that there is nothing in the geological aspect of the question to 

 warrant the conclusion that salt exposures exist beyond the frontier, 

 though its presence is quite possible whether exposed or not, and quite as 

 impossible to foretell. 



Had the existence of nearer salt been known during the great time 

 these deposits have been worked, people would hardly have come ajl the 

 way from Kabul and other distant places with unladen animals to buy' 

 it here, and this seems a stronger argument against its occurrence in 

 trans-frontier regions, than any geological reasons to the same effect, or 

 to the contrary, bearing upon this most important point with regard to 

 the British monopoly of the salt. 



* Far beyond the distance at which any rocks could he recognised, some high mountains 

 in the country on the other side of the Kuram are probably formed of crystalline rocks, for 

 granitoid chucklcies (mill-stones) were seen among the wandering Wazirfs, who said they had 

 brought them from that direction. 



( 177 ) 



