594 Notes on Geology and Mineralogy of Afghanistan. 



by tertiary strata containing fresh-water shells, and by 

 diluvial deposits ; as yet however no evidence exists of the 

 occurrence of the remains of mammalia in which the tertiary 

 strata of India have been found to be so rich. 



All these formations are accompanied in some part of 

 their course by volcanic rocks, and from the Kojeh Amram 

 range to some distance beyond Greeshk, and extending 

 from the southern desert tracts upwards towards Ghuznee, 

 evidence exists, in the occurrence of vast masses of basalt 

 and greenstone, both in dykes and detached conical hills, of 

 the activity in by-gone times of violent disruptive forces. 

 If moreover the testimony of respectable and well informed 

 Affghans is to be relied on, it would appear that such forces 

 are not yet altogether quiescent, for an intelligent chemist 

 of Candahar, who had travelled much, and who professed to 

 be somewhat of a Savant, declared to me more than once, 

 in presence of others who implicitly believed him, that an 

 active volcano is still in existence among the Huzzarah 

 mountains, although, as he said, few are now (1840,) in exis- 

 tence who remember to have seen it in a state of irruption. 

 He described the mountain as being in the form of a cone 

 abruptly truncated at the summit, where a hollow or bowl- 

 shaped depression exists, from which many years ago he 

 had heard that flames were seen to issue, and he added, that 

 the sides of the mountain were strewed over " with cinder- 

 like and slaggy-stones, similar to those produced from a fur- 

 nace." These fragments may possibly be nothing more 

 than decomposed volcanic rocks and trap-tuff, yet the de- 

 scription tallies so well in all respects, even to the frag- 

 ments of scoriae and lava, with the appearance of a vol- 

 canic mountain, that were not the Affghans, according to 

 the testimony of their own countryman, Shah Shooja, re- 

 gardless of truth, I should have had no hesitation in at once 

 accepting the story as true. It is to be observed however, 

 that as my informant had no possible object to gain by 





