508 Report on the Salt Range, [Nov. 



much more recent date occur, resting on the limestone and gradually 

 covering it from view. These consists of calcareous conglomerates, in- 

 cluding small boulders of primitive rocks, sandstones and limestones, 

 identical with those found in situ in the range, and gradually passing 

 into highly calcareous friable grey sandstones interlaminated with beds 

 of blue and red clay, occasionally inclosing patches of conglomerate, 

 which towards the Indus at Mokhudd become very abundant. The 

 dip of these strata diminishes regularly as one descends from the range 

 into the plain, stretching north to the Hazara country and westward to 

 the Indus, where they are nearly horizontal and are covered with a very 

 thin soil on which but little vegetation exists. On the banks of nul- 

 lahs and neighbourhood of wells which are but thinly scattered the 

 water being at a great depth from the surface, fair crops of barley, 

 wheat and grain are raised, but the culture of the two former is rather 

 precarious from the great droughts to which the district is liable. 



Gold. — Gold is obtained in considerable quantity in this district, be- 

 ing washed from the sands, which have resulted from the disintegration 

 of the soft strata in the beds of the numerous nullahs which intersect 

 the country and during the rains pour their waters into the Jhelum 

 and Indus. 



With the exception of some indistinct vegetable organisms associated 

 with masses of jet near Kuhar to be afterwards noticed, and still more 

 indistinct traces of amulidse in a fine indurated clay, we did not observe 

 any organic remains in these strata. The large amount of calcareous 

 matter which the soft sandstones contain and which by solution in a 

 weak acid, leaves the sand in its original state, has doubtless been de- 

 rived from the calcareous waters which seem to have existed at the 

 time of their formation. At no point does the lime appear to have 

 been more extensively diffused through the strata, than at Mokhudd, 

 where the Indus, about 300 yards wide, rushes with considerable force 

 between two walls of conglomerate, presenting the appearance of a 

 hardened mortar into which, in a soft state, rounded boulders of all 

 kinds of rocks had been indiscriminately thrown. 



From Mokhudd downwards to Kalibag in the course of the Indus, 

 admirable sections are seen of these more recent strata on both sides of 

 the river, which from a position of comparative horizontality, gradually 

 ascend towards the central ridge of the range, and at Dundhote, about 



