HILLY RANGES AND THEIR NEIGHBOURHOOD FROM BAHADUR KH^L, &C. 141 



with an average width throughout, often approaching and sometimes 

 exceeding a quarter of a mile. It is not only in the bottom of this 

 little valley that the naked salt is seen, for it also forms much of the 

 sides and rises with two conspicuous hills 200 feet in height in the 

 middle of the glen. The whole of these hills are exposed rock, and the 

 rock is salt, except a small capping of craggy gypsum on top, which 

 looks in places somewhat disturbed and greatly weathered (see frontis- 

 piece) . 



The aspect of all this gray rock-salt is peculiar, often dull and icy, 



with irregular darker patches or blotches, giving 

 Aspect of the salt. 



many of the beds a conglomeratic appearance, but 



which broken into are found to be perfectly clear and crystalline salt. 



In other places it has a blacker look, and thin muddy layers are not 



uncommon. 



The stream in the valley is said to flow constantly and to be - largely 

 derived from springs ; it is of course saturated brine running on a bed of 

 but slightly concealed dark rock-salt strongly contrasting with the copious 

 thick dendritic incrustation which almost entirely covers the stream, 

 forming a surface of quite sufficient strength to support one's weight. 



Notwithstanding that the exposure of the salt is so great, there 



are attendant circumstances giving a good deal 

 Complexity. 



of complexity to the relations chiefly on the 



south side of the salt tract., but, fortunately, these are specially clearly 

 seen just at the western extremity of the latter in the Kurshru Algud 

 gorge, where two streams meet south-west of Bahadur Khel. As the 

 Kurshru Algad sec- section exposed here is so highly instructive re- 

 garding the arrangement of the groups, and 

 shows the proper place of the salt, it will be well to describe it briefly 

 (Fig. 36) before considering that taken across the larger development 

 of the salt near the quarries to the east. 



1. Rock-salt. 2. Gypseous series. 3. Red clay zone. 5. Nummulitic limestone. 6 & 7. Tertiary 

 sandstone. 



( 245 ) 



