1841.] On the Mineral resources^ fyc. of Northern Afghanistan. 75 



clear out lately with the intention of reporting on them hereafter. The ore is the purple variety, 

 and I also found indications of the vitreous strike of the strata N. N. E. and S. S. W. dip 65- 

 W. N. W. 



On entering the Pass of Silawat, there is a ravine to the Westward, where a spring with a few trees 

 may be discerned. About a couple of hundred yards above this spring is another old excavation, 

 blocked up like the former, the declivity of the mountain is here very great ; strike of the strata N. 

 E. and S. W. dipping about 62' to the N. W. are copper pyrites, in a hard quartzose matrix, 

 wall of the vein soft and slaty, and covered with the blue and green stains of copper. Here the 

 limestone assumes a slaty structure and then verges into a micaceous rock, from which I conjec- 

 ture that the ore at a greater depth will make (as the term in Cornwall is) to mica slate. The decay- 

 ed and withered splinters of this slaty limestone, at first sight have much the appearance of clay 

 slate— East of this again I found another excavation in a micaceous rock, evidently a continuation 

 of the last mentioned, the direction of the strata the same, and dipping in the same quarter at a 

 high angle, ore copper pyrites. In the same line I have traced this deposit to another locality 

 a short distance off. 



On the Eastern, or left hand side of the road going up the Silawat Pass, is another old excavation 

 blocked up like the rest. Strike of the strata W. S. W. and dipping about 65 - N. N. W. 



I saw stains of copper here, but observed no further trace of the metal at the time I visited the 

 spot ; a specimen of vitreous ore has however been brought to me since, which is reported to be 

 from that quarter. Higher up the hill, and on the same side of the road, is another excavation, where 

 I found indications of vitreous ore. Strike of the strata about N. E. by E. and S. W. by W. 

 dipping about 65' to the N. W. by N. 



About a quarter of a mile to the Eastward of the last mentioned, there is a singular deposit. A 



vein or bed of iron ore, upwards of 30 feet in breadth, containing another vein of a mixture of iron 



and grey copper in a space about two feet wide. This mixture of copper and iron has been worked 



' to the extent of a few feet, but the difficulty of separating the copper from so large a proportion of 



iron, was no doubt too difficult an operation for the ancient miners to be attended with profit, and 



i must have been abandoned accordingly. Strike of the strata here N. E. and S. W. dip 75* N. W. 



From the direction of the strata, and the external character of this iron ore, it must I think be con- 



1 nected underneath with a great bed of iron ore nearly 40 feet in width, which I discovered in the 



! Silawat Pass. The ore is massive, and is of a steel grey colour ; sometimes it gives a blackish streak, 



i and then it affects the magnet considerably, showing the presence of the protoxide. The great mass 



i however gives a red streak, and below the surface will no doubt be found a well-defined bed of 



specular iron ore. 



To the west of the crest of the Silawat Pass, and near the summit of the range, which I suppose 

 must be about 1200 feet above the level of the plain of Moosye, are some extensive excavations. 

 The general strike of the stratification here is about N. N. E. and S. S. W.— in some places it is 

 nearly perpendicular, or dipping at a great angle to the W. N. W. ; one of these excavations at first 

 appeared to me like an open working, having the form of a perpendicular chasm in the mountain, 

 the depth of which I measured upwards of 40 feet, and varying from 3| to 8| feet wide, at the 

 1 deepest part the measurement was 7 feet and three quarters. 



From further observation, however, I am inclined to suspect that this excavation, but especially 

 others of a far deeper and more extensive character at Koh i Aeenuk and Seestungee, occupied 

 originally the spaces of galleries, or levels, and that these have fallen in since, either from having 

 been shaken by an earthquake, as the wreck and ruin presented by some of them would seem to 

 indicate, or what appears probable, the action of water from the melting of snow at the surface, 

 percolating by the walls or sides of the veins, has in process of time gradually loosened that portion 

 of the ground which was left as a protection for the levels, and these levels having been driven 

 along veins that preserve their course with the direction of the strata, which are nearly perpendi- 

 cular, will account for the chasm-like appearance they now exhibit. 



