244 Report on the Geological Structure of the Salt Range. [No. 3. 



interior of the veins, without observing frequent fractures in it, or 

 partial faults, which are generally filled with coarsely powdered salt, 

 gypsum and marl, produced probably by the fractured ends of the 

 bed rubbing against each other during the process of upheaval, or 

 from subterranean movements subsequent to this. 



The mineral has hitherto been mined in a most primitive manner, 

 no alterations or improvements having been introduced, since the 

 annexation of the Punjaub in 1849, 



When a spot has been fixed upon, as a promising locality, a 

 tunnel is cut in the marl about five feet high and three and half 

 feet broad, and carried on until salt is reached, the proximity of 

 which is generally indicated, by the marl becoming moist and assum- 

 ing more the character of a dark red clay. The mineral is then 

 excavated as long as a supply is procurable, no attention being paid 

 to leaving pillars at intervals for the support of the workings, the 

 consequence of which is, that great annoyance is experienced from 

 the falling in of the roof of the mines ; and accidents to the unfor- 

 tunate miners themselves are of frequent occurrence. Should the 

 shaft have been sunk on, and reached only a mass of salt, after this 

 is worked out, the mine is either abandoned, or a gallery driven to a 

 greater depth into the marl until another large mass is found or the 

 salt bed reached. As this invariably has a strike and dip correspond- 

 ing to the strata superior to the marl, the stratification of the salt 

 guides the miners in their onward course. Along the bed, the pro- 

 cess of working is the same as on the masses, the whole of the good 

 salt being mined without leaving any support for the roof of the 

 workings, there being nothing more than huge caves excavated en- 

 tirely in the salt, which is seldom or ever worked through, either in 

 the floor or roof of the caves, because as the salt approaches its 

 matrix it becomes intimately mixed with marl, and is highly deli- 

 quescent from containing magnesia. 



In almost every mine in the Salt Range the evil of having left no 

 pillars for the support of thin roofs, &c. is experienced, and some of 

 the larger and best mines have been in a great degree abandoned, 

 in consequence of their becoming filled up with huge masses of salt, 

 gypsum and marl. As the marl is the lowest rock in the Eange, and 

 dips under all the others in a northerly direction at an angle of from 



