106 Mr. Verchére on the Geology of Kashmir, [No. 2, 
this be true, we may infer that the auriferous source is somewhere to 
the north, and that by tracing the gold stream, so to speak, we might 
arrive at a point where the drifted materials become coarser, and 
where the gold, from its high specific gravity, has been deposited in 
larger quantity.”’* 
That the miocene deposit of the Sub-Himalaya has been derived 
from the mountains situated N. or N. EH. of it, is evident from the 
boulders contained im the conglomerates of the formation, these 
boulders being mostly volcanic rocks, such as we have seen in the 
mountains near the Baramoola, and such as we shall see in other parts 
of Kashmir. We will see, by and bye, that these volcanic rocks extend 
to the west, along the northern boundary of the Peshawur valley, as 
far at least as Jelalabad, and to the east as far, at any rate, as 80° east 
long., and probably much farther, though it appears from Captain R. 
Strachey’s memoir on the geology of part of the Himalaya mountains,+ 
that the volcanic rocks in the eastern portion of the Himalaya are 
more intrusive than they are in the western extremity of the chain. 
If it is indeed true that grains of gold of some size are picked out 
of the sand in Hazara, some valuable diggings might yet be found 
in the valleys situated between the spurs of the Kaj Nag range or its 
extension to the west. But I cannot help thinking that, with a 
population everywhere anxions to wash gold even in very poor wash- 
ings, auriferous sands of any economical value would have been worked 
long since, especially as the sands formed by the decomposition of a 
porphyry, similar to that of the Kaj Nag chain, and situated on 
the eastern frontier of Kashmir are searched for garnets only. 
The magnetic iron ore is tolerably abundant in the pepper and salt 
sand, and is at present wasted by the gold-washers of Kothair and 
Mukud: but it has not been always so. In traversing the great 
miocene plateau of Rawul Pindee, I noticed for many miles along 
the road, between Pindeh Geb and Jubbie, small pieces of black 
slag, often in some quantity and evidently very old, as many 
pieces were seen where ravines had cut the ground, buried a foot 
* Ditto ditto, page 344. 
+ On the Geology of part of the Himalaya Mountains and Tibet, by Captain 
RB, Strachey, Bengal Engineers, I’. G, 8. Proceedings of the Geological Society of 
London, 1851, 
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