346 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. [April 28, 



south of this place (Peeth) there are also other tufaceous formations, 

 often of great extent, but the streams or springs from which the de- 

 posit was formed have long ceased to exist, and the tufa is broken 

 and dilapidated. From the hot spring I ascended the crest of the 

 Hala Range, which at this place has an elevation of about 1500 feet 

 above the sea ; the rock is the nummulitic limestone so often alluded 

 to as constituting the backbone of these mountains. The beds dip at 

 about 30° to the east, the limestone is hard, compact and subcrystal- 

 line, and the fossils at this point are very imperfect and ill-preserved. 

 The range, characterized by isolated peaks, becomes gradually elevated 

 towards the north, and in that direction was enveloped in clouds at 

 the time I ascended. A continuous ridge, only broken by narrow 

 clefts (formed I presume at the time of upheavement), conveys to the 

 mind the best idea of them. The highest portion of the Hala Range 

 is not more than 3500 feet above the sea. I was unable to prose- 

 cute my examination further in this direction owing to the utter 

 deficiency of water in the mountains, and I therefore returned to 

 Peeth. Hence I proceeded northerly six miles to a well two miles 

 beyond Shahdad-ka-gote. The well, the water of which is tepid, is 

 about 70 feet in depth, and is bored through the conglomerate, 

 which is met with at about twelve feet from the surface. From this 

 I proceeded to Ali-Morad-ka-gote, about 4^ miles north-east. The 

 country passed over is sandy and tolerably level, being a plain of 

 from one to two miles in breadth, widening towards the north, and 

 situated between the outer range of mural cliifs and the more ele- 

 vated Hala Mountains. The low hillocks near this are composed of 

 various coloured clays like those at Shah Hussan, passing down- 

 wards into sandstone, and often crowned with conglomerate, the 

 pebbles of which are small. The beds here, owing to some local 

 disturbance, dip at an angle of about 1 2° to the west. Hence to Johee, 

 fourteen miles, no water was to be had at any intermediate point, the 

 roads for the most part passing over a naked and barren desert. At 

 this place the villagers informed me that a small river came through 

 the Hala Range by the ^' Kaphooee" Pass, and was to be found in a 

 north-westerly direction from Thulvee. I accordingly pushed on for 

 the latter place, about twenty miles ; and thence north-west across 

 the tail of the desert and by Gool Mahommed-ka-gote, about eighteen 

 miles, to the gorge whence the " Gauj" river debouches on the plain. 

 This river is not laid down in any map that I have seen. At this 

 dry season it was knee-deep, and about fifteen yards in breadth ; but 

 at certain seasons it is subject to great floods. It rises to the westward 

 of the Hala Range, and finds its way by a transverse cleft, known as 

 the Kaphooee Pass, to the plains of Sinde. This place is well-cal- 

 culated for a canal-head, and is worthy the attention of the authori- 

 ties in Sinde. Irrigation is now effected to some distance, but under 

 European superintendence much more could be done ; and a vast tract 

 of country, now a desert, could be rendered fertile by the judicious 

 use of the water of the Gauj . 



The outer range at this place is composed of conglomerate in well- 

 marked beds, dipping into the plain (towards the east) at from 25° to 



