1844.] and on GeraroVs Account of Kunawar. 175 



the purposes of agriculture. The wind is usually or nearly always 

 from the S. or S. W., and in winter it blows with great violence. 



Geology Metals. — Kunawar is an interesting field to the venturous 

 geologist. The accumulation of ages in the dark recesses of a dis- 

 placed ocean are now in middle air, and their structure, chemical or 

 mechanical, stands revealed in sections, broad, high, and precipitous. 

 The vast extent of the strata in breadth and depth, their tortuousness, 

 their great dip, and their occasional approach to perpendicularity, all 

 declare, that they have been raised from the deep by forces surpass- 

 ing far the subterraneous efforts of Italy and Iceland ; while torrents 

 of molten mineral have been urged with volcanic fury through the 

 heavy and rending bed of the ocean, and now appear as veins of 

 granite and quartz, ramifying from the base towards the summit of 

 mountains of gneiss and slate. The granite is always seen, (and 

 sometimes in large masses which might elsewhere be termed hills,) but 

 it does not constitute the bulk of a mountain, or everywhere compose 

 the crest of a range, as we are usually told of this "first of rocks." 

 The limits of the primeval floods of middle Asia, and the successive 

 geological conditions of the tract are yet to be ascertained, but about the 

 junction of the Petti and Sutlej, the gneiss would seem to yield by 

 degrees to limestone, slate, gypsum and crystalline sandstone, (see 

 also Captain Hutton's Report.) Shining shallows and shingly beaches 

 may here have been found investing some ancient promontory, or 

 forming the coast of an inland sea, for multitudes of ammonites and 

 other shells give proof of organic life and of the means of sustaining it, 

 while abundance of pebbles and rounded rocks, various in size and in 

 kind, scattered about the highest Passes, give some evidence of tidal 

 action. 



Veins of copper occur in one place in Kunawar, and some grains of 

 gold have been found in the beds of its streams. There is a lead 

 mine in the adjoining district of Petti. Other metals are perhaps to 

 be met with, but difficulty of access would render all unproductive as 

 merchandize, save those of the precious or rarer kinds. 



Animals. — Kunawar has no animals peculiar to itself. In the 

 lower districts, several of the deer kind are found, including the one 

 which produces musk. Bears and leopards, jackalls, foxes, and 

 horses are not uncommon, and the wolf or gaunt, wild dog occasion- 



