224 WYNNE : TRANS-INDUS SALT REGION, KOHAT DISTRICT. 



At the Saya Malgheen (Sera, Malgin) quarries the upper layers 

 of the salt alternated with black bituminous gypseous rock at one place, 

 which contained small but beautiful crystals of anhydrite in transparent, 

 colourless, rectangular prisms. 



Geograjo7iical area of consumption of Trans-Indus salt. 

 Eastwards of this salt region the river Indus Customs line forms a 

 great boundary confining the consumption of the cheap Kohat salt in 

 that direction and separating its distribution from that of the Salt Eange 

 which pays a tax of Rs. 3-1 per maund. • Kabul gets its salt from 

 Bahadur Khel by the most direct route through the Koorum valley, 

 which is reached in a few marches from Bahadur Khel by various 

 rugged routes. Most of these lead over the (Manzulli) range of hills 

 north of that place, then turning westward until the Koorum river is 

 reached ; from this part the traders follow the stream north-westward, 

 others proceed westward and south-westward through the Waziri 

 country, the carriers being themselves Waziris and Ghilzais. 



The most western limit said to be reached by this salt is lake 

 Alistad* in the Ghilzai country, south of Ghazni, at a distance of nearly 

 200 miles from Bahadur Kh&, I learned, however, from a native of 

 this Alistad region that this salt was carried further still in a westerly 

 direction and down to Kandahar. At this distance, however, it was 

 very dear, and equal in price to ghee, wherefore many people could not 

 afford salt, and some used an impure efflorescence instead. He also said 

 the Alistad lake was not a salt lake. 



Another portion of the Bahadur Khel salt is carried southward 

 via Bannu into the Derajat, or country between the British frontier in 

 that direction and the river Indus preventive line. For this route, too, 

 the Kurruk salt is chiefly reserved, going by a more direct road past 

 Sheik Biidin mountain ft) the south, but some of it is also allowed to go 

 to Bannri, and thence to the west along with the Bahadur Khel salt. 



* Captain Plowden's memorandum. The name of this lake in the recently issued 

 map of Turkistan is spelled Ab-istada. 

 ( 328 ) 



