Notes on Geology and Mintralogy of Affghanistan. bJ7 



energetic means were necessary, the mountain barriers 

 were burst, and the scattered fragments and rolled blocks 

 that now strew the Khyber Pass, bear testimony to its once 

 having afforded exit to a mighty rush of waters ; while the 

 Gida Gulla (Jackal's neck) or long defile East of the plain of 

 Peshawur, clearly points out the farther course of the tor- 

 rent towards the bed of the Indus, whence its passage to 

 the ocean was easy and natural. While at Jumrood, I had 

 an opportunity of observing a fact which strongly supports 

 the idea I have ventured to propose ; for a well, which the 

 Sikhs were employed in sinking within their new fort of 

 Futtehgurh, and which had already proceeded to the depth 

 of 180 feet, had altogether passed through rolled pebbles 

 of slate and limestone, the constituents of the Khyber range 

 of hills. But the wells of Peshawur, generally twenty or 

 thirty feet deep, never passed through anything but mud and 

 clay strata. Now the fort I have mentioned is situated at 

 the very mouth of the Khyber Pass, and Peshawur is twelve 

 or fourteen miles distant, towards the other extremity of the 

 plain. If then this plain were once the basin of a lake into 

 which a stream had poured through the Khyber Pass, it is 

 obvious that such a stream would at its very entrance into 

 the lake have deposited the rolled pebbles and heavier 

 matter with which it was charged, while the lighter mud 

 and clay would have floated on to a considerable distance ; 

 in other words, the former would have dropped at Jumrood, 

 and the latter gone on to Peshawur, and this is precisely the 

 fact."* 



It would appear from these remarks, that the Khyber 

 and Bolan Passes must exhibit very nearly the same pheno- 

 mena ; each is a mountain defile rising gradually in eleva- 

 tion towards Affghanistan ; each exhibits a bed of rolled 



* See Dr. Lord's Report to Government; also Journal Asiatic Society, Bengal. 



