1849.] Trip to Pind Dadud Khan and the Salt Range. 685 



the salt mine village of Maree being on the E. bank, and about a mile 

 above Kalibag, where the Indus escapes from the hills and increases in 

 width as it flows through the level country of the Esan Khails on W. 

 and Kucha on E. side. Kalibag is but a small place, built on the W. 

 bank of the Indus, and close upon the river, its houses rising one above 

 the other in terraces on the side of a salt hill. The alum kilns form 

 the most striking feature of the village — their red mounds rising here 

 and there in the middle of the town. This, along with various manu- 

 factories of iron goods and cloths, constitute the chief employment of 

 the natives, who seem to suffer from goitre to a great extent, numerous 

 individuals being seen walking about with tumours on their necks as 

 large as their heads. 



In Kalibag there are 14 alum works, 12 of which are at present 

 working. The alum is prepared from a black, highly bituminous shale 

 called Roly containing a quantity of iron pyrites, and which is brought 

 from Cheetah, about 2 miles distant, and several other localities in the 

 hills around Kalibag. This shale is coarsely powdered and deposited 

 in layers about a foot thick, between each of which a thin stratum of 

 brushwood, grass or other combustible material is placed. These layers 

 being piled up to a height of 20 or 30 feet are set fire to, and the 

 whole allowed to burn slowly, water being from time to time sprinkled 

 on the mass, to facilitate the reaction of the ingredients in the kiln on 

 each other. When the combustion is completed, which occupies 6 or 8 

 months, according to the size of the kiln, the shale has assumed a brick 

 red color and its surface is encrusted with a coating of alum mixed 

 with sulphate of iron. This burnt kiln affords the materials for the 

 alum preparations, and portions of it are deposited in a baked earthen 

 vat, which is constructed close to the kiln, and a little below the level 

 of its base, and in it are lixiviated with water. When this is satu- 

 rated with the crude alum, it is run off by an opening in the lower part 

 of the vat, into another one of the same dimensions and character, 

 when any muddy particles are allowed to settle. After being allowed 

 to rest in 2nd vat for 6 or 8 hours, it is then slowly run off into ano- 

 ther smaller one in a lower level, and close to a large evaporating iron 

 pan, into which the alum liquid is conveyed, and when boiling mixed 

 with a brownish earth which is here called Jumsau, and appears iden- 

 tical with the saline incrustation abundant in all jungles in the N. W. 



