1853.] Report on the Geological Structure of the Salt Range. 345 



alum kilns. The miners declared to us that the coal never occurred 

 in seams, but merely in patches of irregular extent and thickness. 

 The shale at Kathee is remarkably fresh, and, except on the surface, 

 is not at all decomposed. It contains more carbonaceous matter 

 than any other shale of the sort we have seen in the nummulite 

 limestone formation, and hence, as but little wood is required to burn 

 it when once it is lighted, it is most economically used in the prepara- 

 tion of alum. The pits are sunk to no great depth in the shales which 

 dip under the limestone at an angle of from 30 to 35°. By sinking 

 a shaft to some depth in the shale it could be easily determined 

 whether the coal occurs here as a seam or not. The locality is a 

 convenient one and access to the present shale pits, easy. 



Having thus indicated the existence of coal in seams of irregular 

 thickness throughout the nummulite limestone formation for a dis- 

 tance of one hundred and thirty miles, it is evident that a very con- 

 siderable amount of fuel exists ; but the very irregular thickness of 

 the deposit, the high angle at which the strata dip, their inaccessi- 

 ble position and the immense amount of debris in the cliffs above the 

 coal will we believe prove serious obstacles to mining it success- 

 fully as a steamer fuel. A few experiments conducted in the more 

 favourable localities can alone decide the point. 



Wherever the coal has been observed, its characters are identical. 

 It is evidently a lignite or brown coal as it gives a brown streak, and 

 frequently contains half-decomposed patches of brown carbonaceous 

 matter resembling peat. Specimens of the coal obtained from some 

 depth, and which have not suffered from atmospheric influence, are 

 highly bituminous, of a glistening black colour like jet or cannel coal 

 and sometimes present a pavonine lustre. It is very brittle, a cha- 

 racter peculiar to all lignites or recent coals, small crystals of gyp- 

 sum may generally be observed in the coal ; which, in most localities, 

 contains but little of the iron pyrites so abundant in the alum shales. 

 The origin of the coal is probably marine and from the abundance of 

 large gasteropodous molluscse in the strata both above and below the 

 shales, it is probable that by their decomposition as well as that of 

 fuci and other marine vegetables the coal has been formed. No indi- 

 cations of fossil wood or remains of land-plants have been detected in 

 the shales, from which, however, we have procured one or two shells 



