2G0 Report on the Geological Structure of the Salt Range. [No. 3. 



per end of the Kaffee Kote Eange near the village of Bahadur Dak 

 a series of red and grey saliferous sandstones appear for a short dis- 

 tance under carboniferous limestone. Numerous brine springs issue 

 from these, which are doubtless the equivalent of the Devonian rocks 

 East of the Indus. 



Primary or Palceozoic Carboniferous Hocks. 



Succeeding the formations last described are a series of limestones 

 and sandstones which, from the abundance of marine organic remains 

 they contain, furnish to the geologist a most invaluable aid in deter- 

 mining the age of various rocks inferior to them. 



During the very partial examination of the Salt Range, which by 

 orders of Government we made in the month of April 1848, we 

 detected at Moosakhail on our return to Lahore from Kalibagh a 

 developement of calcareous strata, which in our report we stated to 

 be evidently superior in geological position to the salt marl. In a 

 few hours devoted to the examination of this locality, a small collec- 

 tion of fossils was obtained, which were sent to England in order, if 

 possible, to have them identified. 



Through the kindness of Sir Eoderick Murchison we effected this, 

 and were informed by that distinguished geologist that, the Moosa- 

 khail fossils seemed identical with carboniferous forms well known 

 in the British isles. 



M. de Yerneuil to whom my collection was submitted, identified 

 5 out of 8 or 9 species with forms well known in rocks of carbonife- 

 rous age in other parts of the world. 



The circumstance of our having detected what we took for belem- 

 nites and ammonites associated with genera characteristic of palae- 

 ozoic formations, and misled by the idea entertained by geologists 

 until very recently, that salt deposits were confined to Triassic or 

 more recent rocks, we had great difficulty in bringing ourselves to 

 believe that the Salt Eange salt could possibly belong to a formation 

 older than the Trias. The recent announcement, however, of the 

 fact, that in North America the great salt sources issue from the 

 heart of palaeozoic rocks, and that in Eussia the salt lies chiefly in the 

 uppermost palaeozoic deposit, and also in the Devonian sandstone, 

 immediately removed all doubts from our minds as to the true age 



