842 Report on the Geological Structure of the Salt Range. [No. 4. 



seam from its out crop and working along its strike. This we had 

 neither time for, nor the means of effecting. In sinking such a shaft, 

 considerable annoyance would be experienced from the amount of 

 debris and the incoherent nature of the overlying strata in the cliffs 

 above the coal. The high inclination too of the beds, and the conse- 

 quent liability to have any shaft sunk in them filled with water 

 after heavy rain, are very serious obstacles to working the coal suc- 

 cessfully, even supposing the seam preserves a continuous thickness 

 for any distance, which we are very much disposed to doubt. 



Should government determine on making attempts to mine the 

 Salt Range Coal, we strongly recommend that this locality be fixed 

 on for the purpose, as it is the only one where any hope of success 

 can be offered. 



Drengun. On the north side of this mountain and to the west of 

 the path leading from Besharut to Chooa Gunj Ali Shob, lignite of 

 a similar character and in a similar position occurs, but from expo- 

 sure to atmospheric influence, it is soft and crumbles into a brown 

 dust in the hand. In a ravine of most difficult access about two 

 hundred yards west of the path, highly bituminous shales about one 

 hundred feet thick are exposed, dipping under nummulite limestone 

 to the north northrwest at an angle of 70° ; in these two or three 

 seams of tolerably good coal were found, the thickest of which was 

 only eight inches. On tracing these, however, for any distance they 

 seemed all to thin out into mere films in the shale. 



As the Drengun coal is evidently an extension northwards of the 

 Baghanwalla seam, a shaft sunk through the nummulite limestone 

 on the table land of Besharut would doubtless reach it, but the 

 expense of sinking a shaft through the hard limestone would be 

 very considerable, and would in all probability not be repaid by 

 ^obtaining a supply of coal, of any consequence. 



Keurah. About a mile north-east of the salt-mine village of 

 Keurah near Pind Dadun Khan, and near a tank known under the 

 name of Euthlum, a mass of nummulite limestone forms a rounded 

 hill in a ravine, at the foot of which bituminous shales occur, from 

 which in 1848 we obtained specimens of coal, from a seam about 

 two feet thick, resting on blue clay. In 1849, five hundred maunds of 

 coal were mined from this locality, and sent to Jhelum for the use 



