ECONOMIC ASPECT OF SALT REGION. 207 



had to bring their cattle over the most difficult pathways on and along 

 the sides of the deep crater-like hollows to reach the quarries, whence 

 they had to remove the salt and bring it down to the depot at Nurree 

 (Narf). 



The whole thickness of the salt seam, as far as was actually visible, 

 appeared to be about 200 feet, and over the whole of this thickness there 

 was scarcely any salt seen that would not have been saleable, the salt 

 here being generally considered of first-rate quality. The place lying 

 high, there are no springs apparent in the salt. 



Kurrulc. — This, like Nurree, is only a salt depot of minor import- 

 ance, serving to supplement Bahadur Khel. As already stated, the 

 salt is excavated in the form of slabs or ( tublis' and debris has in some 

 places to be removed in order to approach the salt, the inclination of the 

 stratification, too, generally sloping into the face of the hills at angles 

 up to 40° and 45° considerable excavation has to be made to expose 

 places favourable for the tubbi system of working on the upper surfaces 

 of the beds. 



The outcrops are traceable for some hundreds of yards along the 

 indented and eroded outcrop of the gypseous series. The mineral is 

 more pure than the average at Bahadur Khel, and is said to be heavier ; 

 it contains numerous blotches of transparent salt (sJiisJii nimuJc). The 

 exposures vary from 20 to 40 feet in height, and some of the quarries 

 are worked into the salt below the local level of the ground. 



The extent of the quarry ground may be from one-quarter to one- 

 half of a mile in length, and a few hundred yards in width, with a deep 

 heading of gypseous and clay debris over nearly the whole of the ground. 

 Springs of water occur in some of the workings situated at low levels, 

 and large pits in the salt or open quarries had become half filled with 

 clear saturated brine. The trade at the place did not seem very brisk, 

 though apparently larger than at Nurree (Nari) . The distance from the 

 salt depot at the village of Kurruk is less than a mile, most of the road 

 lying over the sandy bed of a river which has to be crossed. 



( 311 ) 



