1853.] Report on the Geological Structure of the Salt Range. 339 



60 maunds of shale, Es. 10 



Wood to burn this and evaporate the alum liquor, 4 



3 maunds of Jumsan, 2 8 



9 Coolies' wages, 1 12 



Fee for right to water taken by the Lumberdar 



ofEsakhail, 6 



Sundry Expenses, 10 



Eupees 10 10 

 Difference between 13 anna Eupee and Co.'s 



Es. in Es. 10-10, 2 



Total Expence, Co.'s Es. 8 10 



From the above 4 Co.'s maunds of alum are produced, the value 

 of which at Es. 2-8 per Co.'s maund would be Es. 10, which gives a 

 clear profit to each kurrah per diem of Co.'s Es. 1-6. About 10,000 

 maunds are annually prepared. 



The Kathee alum-works are, we believe, of recent origin as com- 

 pared to those of Kalibagh, where the manufacture has been carried 

 on in the same way by Mulik Ulla Tar Khan's ancestors for eight 

 or nine generations. Between the owners of the new and old alum- 

 works there is considerable jealousy, and as the former can obtain 

 the materials for the manufacture at a cheaper rate, they are likely 

 to damage the monopoly that formerly existed at Kalibagh, in the 

 days when the Mulik of the place was looked upon as a petty king. 

 It has been already stated that the substance from which the alkali 

 of the alum is derived is a brown salt called " Jumsan," which occurs 

 as an efflorescence on the jungle soil of the plains which skirt the 

 Salt Eange and Chichalee Hills and, indeed, is of common occurrence 

 in all grass jungles and waste grounds thronghout the Punjab. It 



I is called " kullur" by the natives, and from it " Jumsan" is obtained 

 by treating the former with water and drying up its filtered solu- 

 tion in shallow earthen vessels exposed to the sun. This on analysis 

 proves to be a mixture of sulphate of soda with common salt, with 

 varying proportions of carbonate of soda ; its quality depending 

 chiefly on the amount of sulphate of soda which it yields. 



