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



Kuringuli a series of sandstone strata are seen stretching to the W. 

 forming as it were a natural boundary between the Illaquas of Chungur 

 and Thunni. These strata, as seen from the top of Kuringuli, appear 

 to dip to the N. W. under the plain of Thunni, and rest on the strata 

 forming that hill, being in appearance exactly similar to those seen at 

 Baghanwalla, as stretching towards Mount Doomeyala, and evidently of 

 a more recent character than the strata on which they repose. 



April 1st. — Choee to Kutass, 4 kos. — From Choee came unto Ku- 

 tass this morning, tbe road leading through a series of valleys sur- 

 rounded by limestone hills, through which the clear stream of water 

 flows towards Kutass, which commences at Choee and on the sides of 

 which a fine green sward exists. Around Kutass the limestone hills in 

 some places are covered with a recent kind of limestone commonly 

 known under the name of Travertine, and which when burned yields 

 a remarkably white and fine lime, a property of which the natives of 

 this place are well aware, and for which they quarry it extensively. 

 The same Travertine is seen at Dundhote, Baghanwalla, &c. resting on 

 the siliceous flint limestone, and frequently contains perfect impressions 

 of leaves, &c. on which the lime forming the recent rock, has been de- 

 posited from water, originally holding it in solution. 



The difference in the character of the rocks on the north and south 

 sides of the salt range, gives to the vegetation an equally different ap- 

 pearance. On the south side, and where the salt rocks occur, the soil 

 is barren in the extreme, but whenever one gets above their influence 

 trees and shrubs occur, giving a green appearance to the sides of the 

 hills in the valleys, between which, especially on the north side of the 

 range, good crops of barley and wheat are raised. At Kutass the fa- 

 mous tank of water is formed in a fissure of the flinty limestone rock, 

 and is said by the natives to be of such a depth that though a faqueer 

 spent two years in making a rope, he could not in that time make it 

 long enough to reach to the bottom of the tank,— a fact, the value of 

 which only depends upon the length of rope he really manufactured, 

 information on which point I could not obtain. Being anxious to as- 

 certain if the alledged depth was really correct, I procured a rope about 

 300 yards long, to which a heavy weight was attached, and entrusting it 

 to a man seated on a charpoy supported by inverted gurrahs, by navi- 

 gating which on the surface of the tank, I obtained the depths at 



