506 Report on the Salt Range, [Nov. 



which issues, but in small quantity on the south side of the range from 

 the strata above, is sweet and pleasant to drink. 



General appearance of vegetation. — The difference in the character 

 of vegetation in the two districts is also striking in the extreme. Where 

 the salt prevails, the few plants which occur are, with one or two excep- 

 tions, diminutive and unhealthy, but on reaching the limestone their ap- 

 pearance changes to a lively green, grasses and ferns are to be seen along 

 the sides of the rivulets ; and an Acanthaceous shrub which abounds 

 generally throughout the range, becomes of at least twice the size. But 

 the contrast is even more striking when the summit of the range is 

 reached. 



From this the limestone dips to the N., presenting on the northern 

 declivity of the range a series of valleys separated by rounded hills. 

 By its disintegration, it yields a soil which in the valleys is productive 

 of excellent crops of wheat and barley, where the loose stones have been 

 removed. These are generally piled up around the fields into low walls 

 and remind one of the peculiar fences so common in the counties of 

 Kincardine and Aberdeen in the north of Scotland, and known under the 

 name of consumption dykes. 



Calcareous Tufa, used as a source of fine Lime. — In some places, but 

 particularly in the neighbourhood of Dundhote, Choee and Kutass, the 

 surface of the limestone is covered with a deposit of calcareous Tufa, 

 passing here and there into Travertine, and frequently containing im- 

 pressions of leaves and fragments of wood. This Tufa is extensively 

 burned by the natives and yields a lime of a perfectly white colour, ad- 

 mirably suited for a building cement. The nummulite limestone is also 

 burned for chunam, but as the Tufa is soft and easily excavated, it is 

 generally preferred. It has apparently been deposited from springs, 

 the waters of which were charged with calcareous matter, held in solu- 

 tion by carbonic acid, but none of these appear now to exist. 



Springs. — Springs are generally abundant in the limestone district 

 on the N. side of the salt range, but no hot ones occur as far as we 

 could discover. The natives assert that such do exist, but those pointed 

 out to us as hot, were at the time we visited them, cooler than the at- 

 mosphere, being on account of the depth from which they spring, un- 

 affected by the ordinary changes of atmospheric temperature. Such 



