1849.] Trip to Pind Badud Khan and the Salt Range. 665 



exist. Distance from Pind Dadud Khan to foot of the hills is about 

 3 miles, where the road becomes very bad, being covered with loose 

 rounded boulders which have rolled down from the heights above. 

 From the foot of the hills to the salt mine village of Keurah is about 

 2 miles, through a valley surrounded on each side by rocks of redbrick- 

 coloured marl, full of white masses of saccharine gypsum, and resting 

 on a conglomerate of red sandstone. This red marl appears to be the 

 matrix of the rock salt which is found in greatest abundance at Keurah, 

 where there are no less than 10 shafts sunk into the marl for the pur- 

 pose of extracting the article, which is deposited in large quantity 

 around the village as it is brought out of the mine by the workers. 

 The principal shaft at present worked is to the right of the village, the 

 entrance to which is by an opening about 7 feet high cut in the red 

 marl, and leading into a passage which sometimes ascending, at others 

 descending, at last reaches a chamber 30 feet in height, 40 feet long and 

 640 feet from the mouth of the shaft, and excavated entirely from the 

 rock salt, of which there yet seems abundance, above and below and on 

 either side. In this chamber men, women and children are engaged 

 working the salt by the light of small lamps hung on the walls of the 

 mineral, and their appearance in the dim light is highly striking — their 

 faces and bodies being covered with a saline incrustation. In the bot- 

 tom of the chamber is a hole filled with brine, said to be of great depth, 

 and to communicate with the other shafts in the neighbourhood. The 

 salt occurs in three varieties — the red, white and glassy, but the former 

 is preferred for culinary purposes, as containing, it is said, less reshuh — a 

 term which we presume means " impurities." Although the salt occurs 

 in greatest abundance in the chamber, it is seen all along the passage 

 leading to it, until within 100 feet of the surface, when it becomes 

 mixed with shining masses of crystallized gypsum imbedded in the red 

 marl and which occurs in great quantity in the salt range, both compact 

 and crystalline. In the mine great annoyance is experienced at times 

 by the falling in of the roof and sides of the workings, which might in a 

 great degree be prevented and many lives saved, if proper means were 

 taken to support the roof and sides of the rock from which the salt is 

 extracted, very insufficient means being at present employed, and hence 

 the frequency of accidents. Salt is only extracted from the mines for 

 8 or 9 months in the year, the danger of working during the rains from 



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