ECONOMIC ASPECT OF SALT REGION. 203 



A salt outcrop over one of the quarries shows the salt stratum 

 to have at that point a thickness of 100 feet, but as the bottom of the 

 salt has not been reached, its total thickness may be much greater. 

 There is some stratification seen in the upper part of the salt, but below 

 in the quarries, it is, as a rule, compact, without any trace of stratification,, 

 though this would probably be difficult to perceive from the purity of 

 the salt and quantity of marks of the pick. At one place there are 

 apparent interstratifications of soft sand and clay, but these were also 

 found filling cracks extending to the surface from which they could be 

 filled. The apparently anticlinal arrangement of the salt here would 

 lead to the supposition that where the quarries are, it is nearly horizontal. 

 This Jatta locality forms an exception to most of the others in the 

 absence of springs. 



Malgheen (Malgin). — The salt quarries here are situated in a range 

 of hills at a distance of fully four miles southward from Malgin, and on 

 the left side of the Teeree Towey (Tiri Taui) river, The northern side 

 of the range is occupied by an almost vertical ridge of limestone and 

 sandstones; below the limestone comes red clay, and under this the 

 gypsum and salt group stretches from east to west, with the river on the 

 south. The total length of the ground over which the salt outcrops 

 occur is three miles. At the eastern end opposite to the village of 

 Zertungi are the old Zaino quarries, and at the western end above the 

 village of Saya (Seya) are the quarries of Malgheen (Malgin) from 

 which salt is raised, those of Zaino being closed. 



These Malgheen (Malgin) salt quarries are more difficult as regards 

 supply than those of the other depots ; the space they occupy is not 

 more than half a mile long and a quarter of a mile broad, the average 

 height above the bed of the river being from 300 to 400 feet. The 

 number of old quarries is so great, that with difficulty places are to be 

 found where, within reasonable depth, remaining patches of rock-salt can 

 be dug out. The salt in these quarries, except near the top, showed 

 little or no signs of stratification, but at an outcrop east of the working 



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