666 Trip to Pind Dadud Khan and the Salt Range. [July, 



the falling in of the roof of the mines, preventing all operations from 

 being carried on. In the salt mine village of Kenrah, there are about 

 650 inhabitants, 400 of whom are employed in the mines, from which 

 are extracted, according to Misser Gyan Chund, from 48, to 50,000 

 maunds of salt per annum, at an expense of from Rs. 2, 2-4 to 2-8 per 

 100 maunds, according to the quality of the salt excavated, and which 

 is sold at Rs. 2 per maund at the mouth of the pit. 



Above the red marl containing the salt is a saulpion of conglomerate, 

 sandstone and limestone strata, presenting a steep escarpment to the 

 south and dipping gradually to the N. or N. W. at angles which vary 

 at different points examined. The coal of Keurah is situated about a 

 mile from the salt mine, and to the N. E. and is imbedded in a series of 

 thin laminated sandstones and bituminous shales, charged with alumi- 

 nous earth and pyrites. The seam is about 2 ft. to 2\ ft. thick, and 

 rests on a blue clay, into which I dug 6 ft. without getting through it. 

 The coal dips to the N. W. with the other strata, and may be traced 

 across a valley for about 30 yards, where it appears to thin out among 

 the blue clay on which it rests. Large samples were obtained of this 

 coal and brought to Pind Dadud Khan. It burns readily to a brown 

 ash, and gives out a powerful heat, but we fear its position in the midst 

 of the hills, which is difficult of access, would render the working of it, 

 supposing it to exist in a regular seam, sl most expensive business. In 

 a limestone in connection with the coal, I detected numerous fragments 

 of fossil shells, a fact of great interest, and which we trust will give a 

 clue to the geological formation in which the coal beds occur, and which 

 we are inclined to consider comparatively recent. The fossils are found 

 at a height certainly not less than 15, or 1600 feet above the level of 

 the sea, 2,100 feet being I think generally given as the height of 

 the salt range. Got back at sunset to my tents at Pind Dadud 

 Khan. 



March 2 1st. — Visited again the seam of coal and hills in the neighbour- 

 hood of Keurah, but could find no traces of more coal, the seam apparent- 

 ly dipping under the strata forming the range to the N. The coal seems 

 evidently to occur in strata superior to the salt, and hence will probably 

 turn out to be one of those lignites, or irregular deposits, of coal, which 

 in circumstances favorable to their working, have been excavated from 

 time to time at Brora in Sutherlandshire in Scotland, Boney Tracy in 



