678 Trip to Vind Dadud Khan and the Salt Range. [July, 



are prevalent at Kuhar, and no doubt are the result of the malarious 

 exhalation of the lake. As coal was said to occur to the north of 

 Kuhar, I visited the locality at a place called Narwa, where a clear 

 stream has cut its way to the depth of at least 200 ft. through a series 

 of soft friable sandstones of a greyish colour, interlaminated with beds 

 of red and blue indurated clays, all of which dip to N. N. W. at 

 an angle of 25°, and seem from their general appearance to be identical 

 with those which abut on Kuringuli and stretch west between the 

 Illaguas of Thunni and Kuhoong, their lower strata resting on the 

 flinty limestone which forms the ridge of the salt range. At the bot- 

 tom of the valley above mentioned and nearly on a level with the 

 stream, masses of coal of a totally different character from any hitherto 

 seen make their appearance, but in no regular seam, being evidently the 

 remains of trunks of trees which in these strata have become converted 

 into coal of the character of Jet, and in which in some specimens the 

 fibrous character of the altered wood is most distinctly seen. This 

 coal occurs in the soft friable grey sandstone, and near it I found dis- 

 tinct marks of leaves in the sandstone (probably those of a palm), 

 destitute however of coaly matter. No other organisms could be found 

 associated with the coal, but in an indurated blue clay above the sand- 

 stone indistinct marks of these were observed. The strata above men- 

 tioned seem evidently of a more recent character than those to the 

 south, and appear to dip under the plain of the Illaqua of Thunni. On 

 the tops of the hills formed by these strata large deposits of travertine 

 occur of the same character as described at Kuhar, &c. 



P. S. Can the small fresh water rivulet which forms the valley of 

 Nurwa be the drainage of the tank at Kutass ? 



April 4th.— Kuhar to the salt mines of Surdi. — Left Kuhar this 

 morning for the purpose of visiting the salt mines of Surdi on the 

 south face of the salt range, and within a couple of miles of the plain 

 of Jhelum. From Kuhar to the salt mine village of Surdi, a distance of 

 fully 6 miles, the road gradually ascends through a series of cultivated 

 valleys between hills, covered with bushes of an Acanthaceous shrub, 

 probably a species of Hypoestes, which abounds on the salt range 

 ground and affords a good shelter to Chicore and Pheasants, the former 

 of which are at this point very abundant. These hills are apparently 

 composed of a continuation of the same series of strata as seen to the 



