1854.] Notes on the Geology of the Punjab Salt Range. 653 



north and south by skirting ridges of 200 feet or to greater 

 elevation. These ridges frequently anastomose and give rise to 

 several parallel vallies which need not be specially dwelt upon. Mt. 

 Sakesa, the most considerable hill in the range, is fully 5000 feet in 

 height, but its position among other hills of considerable altitude 

 greatly diminishes the appearance it would otherwise make. It is 

 thrown up across barrier-like and cuts off the table-land which 

 terminates at its base, and to the south graduates into the confused 

 mass of hills called the Patial hills, many of which must be fully 

 3000 feet high. As previously mentioned, Mt. Sakesa is thrown up by 

 a N. E. to S. W. fault, the beds dipping at a variable but high angle 

 to the N. W. This fault has evidently brought up the saliferous 

 marl to the surface as at the S. E. base of the hill a large salt lake 

 is formed though the salt marl is not fairly seen. A salt lake is 

 also formed in a similar manner, by the saliferous marl being brought 

 to the surface by a fault at Kalla-Kahar, 18 miles due west of 

 Karingli, where however, the fault is not clearly seen, though the 

 marl is pretty plentiful. The Sakesa fault is however, well marked 

 and causes a vertical displacement of strata of certainly 1000 feet 

 and perhaps more. Erom Mt. Sakesa the range makes an abrupt 

 bend to the JST. W. and consists of numerous knife-like ridges, the 

 strata constituting which, are thrown up at a high angle, vertical in 

 places, thereby decreasing the width of the range, to which cause the 

 effects of denudation must be added, which are very forcibly exhi- 

 bited near Musakhel, twelve miles W. N. W. from Sakesa, situated 

 in a deep bay eaten out of the hills, which at that point are not 

 more than one mile across and perforated by a considerable nulla, 

 that flows from the north and during rain discharges itself into the 

 Indus. To the north along its entire length, the range is bounded 

 by an arid and uninviting tract of broken ground with which it 

 becomes blended and throughout which villages and water are scarce. 

 To this last want rather than to the unkindly nature of the soil, 

 must be attributed the general sterile aspect, as at a greater distance 

 from the range where water and open space are procurable, large 

 villages and tolerable crops attest the capabilities of the soil. Along 

 its southern boundary the range presents much bolder features, 

 being on that side cut off along nearly its entire length by either a 



