202 WYNNE : TltANS-INDUS SALT REGION, KOHAT DISTRICT. 



immense benefit to the traffic. It is to be regretted that a good road has 

 not been made from this to the quarries. 



At the time of my visit (January J 874) there were nine different 

 quarries at work, and at six more places the salt was exposed ; all the 

 quarries were situated at the interior slopes of the enclosing ridges. The 

 number of quarrymen was 100, and each had on an average 90 square 

 feet of horizontal rock-salt surface to work upon. The amount of 

 ddbris overlying the salt is in several places very great. It may be 

 fairly said that the amount of salt excavated in each quarry is on an 

 average not equal to twice the amount of debris which had to be removed. 

 Six of the quarries at work were of the kind described as vault-shaped. 

 There was one very large quarry measuring 150 feet along the floor, 

 and exposing a salt wall of 50 feet in height, with from 20 to 50 feet 

 of debris over it. 



This wall was concave, almost semicircular, but only slightly over- 

 hanging, so that the debris was kept with difficulty from falling down. 

 On a second visit after a fall of rain and snow, I found much water accu- 

 mulated in this quarry which had to' be baled out ; the quarry is situated 

 at the south-western side of the valley. The other five quarries of the 

 same kind were of various dimensions, from 25 to 125 feet in length, 

 and from 10 to 40 feet in depth. The three remaining quarries differed 

 from the usual form. 



The working surface of one consisted of a succession of steps along 

 the base of a vertical salt wall 100 feet in length and 50 feet high. For 

 half the length the quarry was temporarily closed by a great down-fall 

 of debris from above. 



A less significant place near it had a working surface of 20 feet by 

 10 feet. 



The last quarry was of rectangular shape, forming a pit of 50 feet 

 length, 30 feet breadth, and' 15 feet depth in the salt. To expose this 

 large surface of rock-salt a heap of debris 30 feet high had been 

 removed. 



( 306 ) 



