502 Report on the Salt Range, [Nov- 



Red sandstone conglomerate. — These boulders have resulted from the 

 disintegration of the rocks superior to them, and particularly of a coarse 

 red conglomerate on which the other strata of the range appear to rest, 

 and which only here and there crops out under a coarse rusty red 

 sandstone. The conglomerate is best seen on the Indus below Kalibag,, 

 where the imbedded boulders are numerous and of the same character as 

 those to the eastward. In this, as also in the sandstone superior to it, 

 no organic remains could be discovered. 



Red sandstone. — Red saliferous marl with Gypsum and rock salt. — 

 Succeeding to the sandstone, which varies in the thickness of its strata 

 at different points, is a red ferruginous marl including beds of gypsum, 

 both earthy and saccharine angular masses of which stand out in bold 

 relief on the sides of the hills, the softer matrix having been washed 

 away by the rains. The marl contains large crystals of Selenite or 

 crystallized Gypsum, known to the natives under the name of Aberach, 

 but they seem neither acquainted with its valuable properties when 

 burned or of that of the Gypsum, which can be had in any quantity and 

 with a very trifling amount of labor. The saccharine variety is generally 

 of a light grey color with a shade of blue, translucent on the edges and 

 yields a plaster of Paris by calcination, of good quality. 



But of far greater importance are the deposits of rock salt that the 

 red marl includes, and which we will merely allude to here as charac- 

 terizing it, which though irregular in the depth of its deposit, seems to 

 attain its greatest thickness in the neighbourhood of Pind Dadud Khan,, 

 thinning out towards Baghana walla to the east, where no salt is excavat- 

 ed, but yeilding that mineral in abundance in all the western course of 

 the range, with the exception of one or two localities, where the hills are 

 of small altitude. 



Variegated sandstones.— Above the marl, a breccia of masses of 

 gypsum, sandstone and limestone cemented in a red calcareous matrix is 

 occasionally to be noticed, lying unconformably on the marl, and to 

 this succeeds a series of arenaceous and argillaceous beds, the prevailing 

 color of which is blood red and presenting all the characters of the 

 usual variegated strata of the saliferous formation. In the lower part 

 of this series at Baghanawalla there occurs a succession of blue slaty 

 soft argillaceous sandstones of considerable thickness, becoming highly 

 calcareous towards their upper part, and above these is a light fawn 



