1866.] the Western Himalaya and Afghan Mountains. 107 



and half below the surface. Knowing nothing then of the magnetic 

 iron sand, I could not conceive whence the slags came, but on seeing 

 the large quantity of iron ore which is washed out of the sand by the 

 gold-diggers, I was forced to conclude that a time had been when the 

 iron powder was saved and smelted. It is not such a poor under- 

 taking as it might appear to wash iron from sand, especially as the gold 

 alone would pay the men 3 or 4 annas a day, and a very little arrange- 

 ment would save the iron, It contains about 70 per cent, of metal 

 of the very finest quality and the very best to make steel. It resembles 

 Swedish iron, and it is the same as the Kangra iron which has been 

 proved to be of excellent quality by experiments in England. It 

 is very dear, selling at £14 a ton. It is probable that the smelting 

 of this iron sand was discontinued from the want of fuel, which is now 

 very scarce on the plateau. That fuel was once more abundant, is 

 sufficiently proved by the amount of travertin seen in many places where 

 no springs exist now-a-days ; and these fossil springs, if I may call the 

 travertin by that name, tell us of a time when a higher jungle on the 

 plateau and forests on the hills arrested a good deal of moisture, and 

 wrung from the humid monsoons a portion of the rains which are 

 now poured on the Himalaya. It would be, I imagine, easy for the 

 local government to find out whether the magnetic iron ore is still 

 smelted in some localities in the district, or when the smelting was 

 discontinued, and to resuscitate the trade, the iron ore being brought 

 to Mukud from the neighbouring villages, and there smelted with 

 charcoal brought down in boats from the Akora Kuttuck hills or 

 from Hazara. Excellent limestone is abundant near the banks of the 

 Indus ten or twelve miles above Mukud. It is also abundant in the 

 conglomerate on which Mukud is built. 



The smelting of this iron sand would not, of course, give profits or 

 yield a quantity of metal worth mentioning in comparison to the 

 results of European industry, but it might be a valuable enterprise for 

 natives possessing some little capital, and might much ameliorate the 

 miserable condition of the gold-washers. 



12. — Returning now to Buniar and the Kag Naj range, I must 

 insist on the very changeable appearance of the porphyry. We have 

 seen that it consists of a granular mass, with large crystals of albite, 

 small crystals of quartz, crystals of garnet, plates of mica and lamellae 



