1S9 



ECONOMIC RESOURCES. 



The economic resources of this district are principally its enormous 



deposits of salt, which, being of great importance, 

 Salt. 



are treated of under a separate section, appended 

 hereafter. 



Large as these salt deposits are, the quantity of gypsum in the 



district is probably still larger, even though ap- 

 Gypsum. 



preciation of this be partly due to the greater 



display it makes over the district on the sides of, or within the hills. 

 But the advantages to be derived from the use of this mineral in agri- 

 culture or the arts are apparently entirely unknown, and it is utterly 

 neglected. In other countries it is mined for ,• here it could be obtained 

 in any quantities at day-light. On the large expansion of the gypsum, 

 &c, at Speena (Spina) the crops (particularly the wheat) are said to be 

 better than in any other part of the country, yet the natives seem never 

 to have drawn the inference that it would be useful as a manure. 



The sulphur pits at Gunjully hills, close on the northern limits of 

 this district, have been already mentioned at page 



Sulphur. 



99. From the way the alum shales have been 

 burrowed into, much of the best part of the deposit may have been 

 exhausted just at that spot, but there is no reason to suppose that it has 

 not some extension beneath the neighbouring debris. It is on record 

 (see foot-note to page 99) that 1,000 maunds of sulphur used annually 

 to be won here, and it seems strange that the deposits are not now 

 utilised as a source for the supply required at Lachee (Laehi) for the 

 blasting powder manufactory where all the powder used in the salt 

 quarries is made. 



There can be little doubt that the alum shale deposits mentioned in 

 the foregoing pages would, if the manufacture was 



Alum. 



tried or encouraged, afford alum in the same way 

 as those of the Chichali pass to the south. 



( 293 ) 



