234 Report on the Geological Structure of the Salt Mange. [No. 3. 



To this rule the streams which escape from the hills at Baghan- 

 walla, Kuttha and Musakhail are exceptions. The two former 

 though slightly saline are entirely consumed for agricultural pur- 

 poses. The latter known as the Vehee Eiver runs entirely through 

 strata, superior to the Salt rocks and pours out a considerable 

 volume of sweet water, a very small portion of which is employed 

 for irrigation, the greater part being allowed to run to waste. By 

 the judicious formation of an aqueduct (stone and lime are available 

 in abundance on the spot) with sluices for the withdrawal of the 

 water, means for the irrigation of a very considerable extent of now 

 unproductive soil, could be rendered available. The various streams 

 we have alluded to, after heavy rains, become suddenly swollen and, 

 acquiring the characteristic impetuosity of mountain-torrents, bear 

 along with them an immense quantity of boulders, gravel and mud, 

 which are, along the foot of the hills, deposited in a succession of 

 zones extending for two or three miles. 



As may be supposed a district formed in this way presents a 

 somewhat barren aspect, and with the exception of a scanty rain 

 crop of Bajra* and Juarf and annual cotton, there is but little 

 ground under cultivation. In the cold weather after heavy rain, it 

 assumes a somewhat green aspect, but when rain does not fall, as 

 was the case in the cold weather of 1851-52, hardly a blade of grass 

 is to be seen, and much do the villagers suffer for want of water, 

 they being in a great degree dependent for the supply of this neces- 

 sary on seasonable falls of rain, which they collect in kutcha (mud) 

 tanks, and which as long as a supply of water lasts are resorted to 

 indiscriminately by men and cattle. 



A stunted jungle of Capparis aphylla (kurul), Salvadora persica 

 (pelu), Zizyphus (beir), Acacia modesta (phoolahi), and Prosopis 

 specigera (jund), occurs along the foot of the hills, and affords graz- 

 ing to numerous camels, sheep and goats, as well as an abundant 

 supply of fuel to the villagers. These shrubs appear to thrive best 

 in soil charged with saline matter, and form the mass of jungle in 

 the uncultivated tracts of the Punjaub Doabs which generally pre- 

 sent on their surface a white saline effervescence known under the 

 name of kullur, and which is a mixture of salt and sulphate, with 

 * Panicum spicatum. t Holcus sorghum. 



