354 Report on the Geological Structure of the Salt Bange. [No. 4. 



been exposed in the deep cuttings which have been made through 

 the sandstones and clays which form entirely the Buhrala Range. 



Gold is found in this formation in the form of minute scales dif- 

 fused through the sandstones, and has doubtless been derived from 

 plutonic and metamorphic rocks, the disintegration of which, has 

 furnished the material of which the strata of the series are composed. 



In the beds of the numerous nullahs or water-courses which flow 

 through the Miocene district, the sand is washed pretty extensively 

 for gold by the natives. It seems to be obtained in greatest quan- 

 tity towards the Indus north of the Salt Eange. 



As compared with the gold fields of Australia and California the 

 auriferous beds of the Punjaub are, as far as is yet known in a prac- 

 tical point of view, insignificant ; "but are nevertheless interesting as 

 illustrative of the extensive diffusion of gold in debris over the globe. 



"We have been quite unable to trace the source from whence the 

 gold has been derived, and are not aware that, among the quartz- 

 ites and quartzose mica slates, which are much developed in the 

 Punchal Eange near the Baramula Pass into Cashmere and stretch 

 west into the northern Hazara mountains, the metal has ever been 

 detected in situ. Prom similar rocks, there can be little doubt that 

 the auriferous sands have been derived ; but the Himalayas must, at 

 the period of their formation, have had a very different aspect from 

 what they now present, and may not have been elevated at all above 

 the general level of the country. 



The mode of obtaining the gold is, we fancy, nearly the same as 

 that adopted in other countries. 



A part of the bed of a nullah or water-course or dry channel of a 

 river having been fixed upon as a likely spot, the superficial stratum 

 of sand and mud is removed, and that beneath collected with a wood- 

 en shovel and carried to the spot where it is to be washed, general- 

 ly close at hand. The washing is effected in a long wooden box 

 resembling a small shallow flat-bottomed boat, wide at one end and 

 narrow at the other, where there is an opening for the escape of the 

 water. The wide end of the " cradle" or troon as it is called, is 

 slightly elevated, so as to give its flat bottom a gentle inclination 

 towards its forepart, and a coarse sieve of reeds is then placed across 

 the wide end of the box. On this the sand is thrown, and water 



