104 R. C. Temple—Notes on the Formation of the Country — [No. 2, 
to the foot of the hills which encompass the numerous valleys into which 
the country is split up. The hills, which are usually bare of trees, of course 
vary greatly in height and form, but uniformly at foot is this glacis or slope 
between them and the valley level. It varies, of course, under various cir- 
cumstances as to length and height, but its presence is invariable. To the 
west of the Khdéjak Pass, where the so-called Khdja Amran Range rises some 
3000 feet above the valley—the Kadanei—it is about 15 miles long and 1000 
feet in height, z. e., the apparent foot of the Range is about 1000 feet 
higher than the real level of the valley. In the narrower valleys, such as the 
Gwal near Quetta, which is only 3 to 4 miles broad, the glacis on either side 
reaches nearly tothe middle of the valley. It is generally very stony and cover- 
ed with detritus from the hills. The streams over it, which are very numer- 
ous as arule, have wide stony beds over which the water rushes with ever 
somuch force, but to no great depth, after every heavy fall of rain. The 
torrents very quickly dry up, and very few of the streams have even a little 
water trickling in places from springs in the bed. The larger streams rush 
down several channels, the higher spots between which seem also to be lia- 
ble to sudden and violent floods whenever a more than usually heavy fall 
of rain occurs in the hills above. These facts seem to lead to the hypothe- 
sis that the slopes have been formed by excessive denudation going on in 
the hills in consequence of their bare and treeless condition. But there 
seems to be another cause. Manyof the hills, especially about the Pishin 
valley, appear to be formed of a slaty shale which is much disintegrated and 
split up at the surface towards the hill tops. It can be broken, or rather 
chipped, off easily by the hand, or even by the mereweight of the foot pass- 
ing over it. The cold at the summits of these bare and exposed hills is 
intense ; the heights being, say 7500 to 8000 feet, and it is possible that 
denudation is helped by the action of frost which separates the shale chips 
to be washed down by the next shower ; and from the appearance of the hill 
sides it is probable that large quantities of these chips are in places brought 
down by every shower. 
Metals——Many parts of the country appeared to me to contain copper 
and iron in large quantities in the soil, but the specimens sent herewith will 
probably do something towards proving their presence and in what quantities 
they occur. ‘There is a small isolated hill in the Dof valley, at the entrance 
of the Surai Pass, which appeared to me to affect the action of my prismatic 
compass. I have heard it asserted that gold is to be found in the quartz 
about the Pishin valley and the Khdja Amrdn Range, but I cannot say I 
saw any myself or any quartz likely to be auriferous. 
Salts.——The soil in many places is white with nitre or salts of sorts: 
and this occurs in all parts of the country traversed. The water in many 
