522 Report on the Salt Range, [Nov. 



ing fallen down in immense masses from the heights above the nullah, 

 requiring only to be broken into portions fit for removal. On the east 

 side of the marl hill the salt is of excellent quality, the transparent 

 variety occurring in great abundance, but on the west side towards Ka- 

 libag, it is mixed with a great deal of marl and hence is little worked. 

 The stratification of the salt is more apparent here than in any of the 

 mines to the eastward, and the strata appear to dip to the N. W. at an 

 angle of 40° . 



The marl abounds in gypsum, which generally is of an earthy charac- 

 ter, the saccharine variety being less abundant than in the other locali- 

 ties we have noticed. 



APPENDIX. 



On the Alum Manufactories of Kalibag. 



Alum Shales. — Next in importance to the rock salt which the strata 

 of the salt range afford, are the Bituminous shales, which abound in all 

 its extent, in connection with the coal seams, and from which, at Kali- 

 bag, Alum is extensively prepared. 



These, as before mentioned, contain clay, abundance of iron pyrites, 

 and their seams of coal, by the mutual reaction of which on each other, 

 especially during combustion, an alum is formed. 



The shale or rol, as it is technically called by the natives, is brought 

 from several localities in the neighbourhood of Kalibag, the principal 

 workings of it being at a place named Chatah, where the shales, corre- 

 sponding to those in which the coal occurs to the E. of the Indus, are 

 about 200 feet thick. 



Ptegular shafts are sunk for the purpose of excavating the shale, and 

 one of those we measured, extended 207 feet from the entrance. From 

 the soft character of the strata accidents to the miners are of very fre- 

 quent occurrence, the risk of which, as in the salt mines, might be con- 

 siderably diminished were proper means taken for the support of the 

 roof and sides of the shafts. In one of these, the shales spontaneously 

 took fire, five or six years ago, and from its mouth a column of smoke 

 resembling that from the funnel of a steamer is constantly issuing, no 

 means being taken to extinguish the chemical action going on in the 

 interior. 



