254 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF INDIA. 



name of Suliman range, Marri hills, Brahuik and Kliirthar ranges, 

 all form links of one great chain with a uniform geological structure. 

 Speaking generally, the area examined on this occasion by Mr. 

 Griesbach can be grouped into three divisions, viz. : — ■ 



1. The Brahuik area of Baluchistan, coinciding with the lime- 



stone facies of the older tertiaries ; 



2. The Pishin valley, with its eastern and western ranges 



(Ghaziaband and Khojak) falling in with the sandstone and 

 shales (flysch) facies of the eocene group ; and, lastly, 



3. The Kandahar and Shah Maksud ranges are formed of 



cretaceous limestone and eruptive rocks of the same age. 



Of special interest are the vast deposits of aerial origin, which not 

 only cover extensive tracts of country in the great deserts of 

 Registan, Seistan, &c, but also encroach rapidly on the more fertile 

 plains of Southern Afghanistan, the valleys of the Helmand, 

 Argandab, the lower Khakrez, and the great tracts lying between 

 Kandahar and Quetta. The great deserts are formed of huge 

 accumulations of blown sand and other material, among which 

 a fine densely red clay is conspicuous. South of Kandahar this 

 loose material, constantly changing its position, is seen to surround 

 and creep up into the hollows, creeks, and fissures of the jagged 

 cliffs of limestone and trap. Every season material is thus added, 

 and the time must come when the whole Kandahar valley will 

 be covered hy this deposit and be merged into the endless expanse 

 of desert to the south. 



The gold near Kandahar occurs about three miles north of the city 

 in quartz veins, between the hippuritic limestone and the extensive 

 trap outbursts.* During the first months of the British occupation 

 the gold was obtained in considerable quantities by a native con- 

 tractor, who rented the mine from the Kandahar Government. 

 Apparently, the process of extracting the gold with mercury, 

 though rude, was paying, but the native workers, being ignorant of 

 all engineering science, went on blasting the rock with gunpowder 

 and inking the shaft lower and lower, until the sides fell in and 

 buried the miners below. Part of the auriferous vein is still visible, 

 and about two inches thick, but Mr. Griesbach was told that it 

 thickened lower down to about two feet or more, and some of the 

 nuggets of gold obtained were of the size of a man's fist. He 

 considers it highly probable that gold will be found all along the line 

 of trappoid beds, north and west of the city, but the then disturbed 

 * Described also at p. 30 of Bellew's Seistau Missiou, Calcutta, 1873. 



