1853.] Report on the Geological Structure of the Salt Bang e. 249 



The introduction of a scientific system of mining a mineral which 

 yields so large an amount of revenue to Government is of such vast 

 importance that we cannot close our remarks on the salt deposit, 

 without urging the necessity of securing the services of a practical 

 miner, who from extensive experience acquired under-ground in 

 some of the large salt mines of England or the Continent, is tho- 

 roughly capable of introducing and carrying out the improvements 

 required. Under his guidance, the mineral should be extracted, 

 shafts sunk, and the whole interior economy of the mines regulated. 



The operations now in progress with a view to run a tunnel into 

 the Sugaswalla mine at Keurah, which from the efforts of the former 

 primitive way of working it, is almost entirely blocked up, are, we 

 trust, only the commencement of a series of reforms, which if carried 

 out with vigour by duly qualified superintendents, are certain to be 

 followed by the best results. It will probably, however, be found 

 more economical and satisfactory to sink entirely new mines through 

 the marl into the salt bed, than to attempt radical changes in mines 

 that have been long worked, and had their roofs extensively under- 

 mined by the indiscriminate excavation of salt. The waste in work- 

 ing the salt is now so great, that we are convinced with a little 

 care and the introduction of an improved system of mining a large 

 amount might annually be saved to Government. It is not enough 

 to say that because the supply of salt is so abundant, there is no 

 necessity for changing the method of mining that has been adopted 

 from time immemorial.* The supply of salt is undoubtedly large, 

 but as there is such a deal of difficulty, nay impossibility, in the 

 present workings of obtaining accurate information as to its extent 

 or thickness, we conceive it is the duty and interest of an enlighten- 



* We have been quite unable to obtain any accurate information as to the period 

 when the salt mines weie first opened. The natives assert it was during the reign 

 of the Emperor Akbar (whose accession dates from 1556) to whom the exist- 

 ence of salt in the Salt Range was disclosed by one Asp Khan, on condition of his 

 receiving, as a reward, during his life time, a sum equal to the amount of the 

 wages of the miners employed in extracting it. During Akbar's reign, it is a mat- 

 ter of history, that Lahore salt sold at the rate of about six annas a maund. In 

 the Kohat district at the present time it may be brought for use Trans-Indus at 

 four aunas a miund ! 



