530 Account of the Koh-i-Damany [June, 



Koh-i-Daman, and when you have arrived at the summit of this and 

 attempt to go north you again meet with this same slaty belt of thirty 

 miles in thickness, which must be traversed before you reach the granite 

 core of Hindu Kdsh. In short to attempt a generalization more exten- 

 sive perhaps than I am strictly warranted in offering, though derived 

 from many sections in various directions, I would say, that an observer in 

 passing south, from the top of Hindu Kush, to the parallel of Kdlabdgh, 

 would see first a core of granite with coating of slate, as in the grand 

 mountain chain ; next a core of slate with a coating of limestone as at At' 

 tok and Khairabdd ; then ancient hills of limestone, hard, blue, and non- 

 fossiliferous, as in the ridge between Peshdwar and Kohat; then a core 

 of more modern limestone (fossiliferous) with a coating of new red sand- 

 stone as in the hills south of Kohat, and then would find himself amongst 

 aluminous clay, sulphur, gypsum, bituminous shale and rock-salt which 

 occur near Lachi, Ismdel Khail and Teri, and are thence continued south 

 to the parallel I have mentioned terminating the groupe. 



Respecting the slate I shall only add that north of the Rush it ap- 

 peared to be by no means of the same extent or importance. After 

 passing the granite I have mentioned at Saighan, I again came on it ; 

 but it did not exceed four or five miles in breadth, and its place seemed 

 occupied by silicious sandstone and fossiliferous sandstones which here 

 are of immense depth ; as however I have rather turned than crossed 

 the ridge in my way to Turkistdn, I have not examined it at each side 

 and under similar circumstances. 



Subordinate to the slate formation, limestone both primitive and se- 

 condary occurs. The former in vast cliffs overhangs the upper part of 

 the valley of Par wan, and exhibits numerous and large natural cavities, in 

 one of which the water of the valley is engulphed and does not re-appear 

 for a distance of two miles. The general color of the limestone here 

 is of a light gray and striped, but masses of. it which have fallen from 

 above and lie in the water-course are often of a dazzling whiteness. I 

 cannot say I met with any of this same formation in my way up to the 

 pass of Hindu Rush, but an extensive limestone formation which I shall 

 have occasion to notice again, is to be found in the Ghorband valley 

 and affords a matrix in which occur ores of antimony, iron, and lead. 

 Still further west on the Bdmian road near Jubrez, I again met with 

 this same limestone, grey and crystalline, in vertical strata, and running 

 east and west, and I learned that immediately to our south in the hills 

 round Midan it affords quarries of white marble, which it was further 

 said might be had along the back of the whole range west to Herdt and 

 south to Kandahar, At the former of these places it has been worked 



