65 4< Notes on the Geology of the Punjab Salt Range. [No. 7. 



fine escarp meiit or by a range of huge craggy buttresses, formed by 

 the detachment and subsidence en masse of great slices of the hard 

 upper strata (limestone) of colossal dimensions. Below these again 

 tail off moraine-wise streams of stony debris resulting from the de- 

 struction of the various beds of the range ; which, when viewed from 

 the plains, represent an interminable series of headlands and pro- 

 montories, and all the characteristic features of an exposed rocky 

 coast. So evident are the means to which this appearance is due, 

 that the mind almost unconsciously dwells on those fine lines of 

 Shakespear descriptive of a similar scene in a far distant land, and 

 when standing on the verge of the escarpment, one is forced as 

 readily acknowledges their applicability to the scene beneath, as 

 though a mighty ocean still, as of yore, rolled its wave3 over the land 

 of the five streams. 



" Stand still.— 

 How fearful 



And dizzy 'tis to cast one's eyes so low ! 

 The crows and choughs, that wing the midway air, 

 Shew scarce so gross as beetles : the murmuring surge, 

 That on the unnumbered idle pebbles chafes, 

 Cannot be heard so high." 



As I shall again refer to the physical features of the south side 

 of the range, I will now briefly notice the salt mines. The prin- 

 cipal Cis Indus mines are situated at Kiura, six miles north from 

 Pind Dadan Khan and fifty miles from Jhilum, other mines exist 

 near Surdi, Makraj, Yarcha, &c. and indeed wherever the saliferous 

 marl is largely developed, but a description of one will suffice, as 

 Kiura mines merely differ from the rest in size and importance. 

 The village of Kiura is situated up one of the gorges, which are so 

 numerous along the southern side of the range, and is built on the 

 tail of the hill in which the mines are situated. The two most 

 important mines (neglecting the Makad and Earwara mines) are 

 the Sujuala and Baggi, which last is a small ill-ventilated mine, the 

 salt from which is a favourite with the merchants, though without 

 any good foundation for the preference shewn it. The road to the 

 Sujuala mine (some twenty minutes walk from the village) is carried 

 along the side of the hill, and rises considerably to the mouth of the 



