426 Lieut.-Colonel Sykes on a portion of Dukhun. 



on insulated stones standing in its stream, are incrustations of common salt intimately mixed with 

 carbonate of lime. No use is made of this salt. The saline impregnation of the soil extends to 

 some distance west and north-west of Ahmednuggur, as I found a handsome well at Kurjooneh, 

 eight miles distant, filled with water so brackish as not to be available for domestic use. At Wur- 

 gaon, between Kurjut and Pairgaon, a peculiar hoary appearance of a patch of ground in the midst 

 of withered grass, led me to examine it. The whiteness was occasioned by lime in minute particles, 

 mixed with a little muriate of soda. 



The third locality of common salt was in the bed of a rivulet at Koond Mawlee, near the falls 

 on the Kookree river, between Serroor and Kowta. A little common salt, with a trace of carbo- 

 nate of soda, appeared, incrusting the rocky bed for a few feet near the water line. I did not 

 observe common salt elsewhere. My attention was first directed to carbonate of soda at Serroor, by 

 observing washermen digging for earth in the banks of a rivulet ; learning that they used it to wash 

 their clothes, I obtained a quantity ; lixiviated the earth, boiled down the lixivium, and on cooling 

 obtained a large crop of crystals, which the usual tests indicated to be carbonate of soda. I only 

 met with one other bed, although I have no doubt they are numerous. At Kalbar Lonee, twelve 

 miles east of Poona and two miles south of the Mota-Mola river, within an area of 200 yards, a 

 constant moisture and partial absence of vegetation is observed. An efflorescent matter appears 

 on the surface every morning, which is carefully swept up and sold to washermen: it is carbonate 

 of soda. The occurrence of salts in the trap formation did not escape Captain Dangerfield's notice. 

 He states that " the banks of the Nerbuddeh (Nermada) near Mundleysir, consist of an upper thin 

 bed of vegetable mould ; a central bed, chiefly of indurated marie, strongly impregnated with mu- 

 riate of soda ; and a lower bed, of a reddish hue, with much carbonate of soda. In the dry season 

 these salts form a thick efflorescence on the surface of the bank*." Saltpetre is manufactured in 

 Dukhun, not from nitrated soils, but from the scrapings of old walls. I have also seen specimens 

 of muriate of ammonia obtained by the brick and tile makers in burning dung, stable and other 

 refuse matters in their kilns. 



Ores. 



No other ore than that of iron is found in Dukhun. It is only worked, to 

 my knowledge, at Mahabuleshwur, at the source of the Krishna river. It 

 occurs as a nodular hematite, associated, I understand (for I have not been at 

 the spot myself), with laterite. This ore produces the celebrated Wootz steel. 



Organic Remains. 



I did not meet with organic remains of any kind whatever. Captain Coult- 

 hardf in Sagar, Major Franklin in Bundelkand, and Captain Dangerfield in 

 Malwa, were equally unsuccessful. Dr. Voysey, indeed, mentions a bed of 

 freshwater shells in a stratum of indurated clay near the Tapty river in the 

 Gawelghur hills ; also at Medconta, 2000 feet above the sea, on trap ; but 

 these may have been recent, as he does not say to the contrary J;. Mr. Calder, 

 in his general observations on the Geology of India§, says, "But hitherto the 



* Malcolm's Central India, p. 324. f Physical Class, Asiatic Researches, p. 81. 



J Physical Class, Asiatic Researches, p. 194. § Ibid., p. 16. 



