PUXJAB OIL KEtllOK. 



rock b}^ siil])liui- springs ; and there may be other similar deposits in the 

 region. 



4. Sulphur. — In each of these cases the gypsum is associated with sid})hnr, which 

 was dug in some quantities twenty years or more ago, from small open pits, and 

 afterwards separated from earthy imjDurities by sublimation. It is said to have been 

 visible in small yellow particles in the eai"th, but cannot now be seen in the rul)ljish 

 of the old pits. There are other sulphur pits near ]N^akbund west of the Indus, and 

 perhaps elsewhere in the region. 



5. Aliun. — Alum shales, which are also bituminous and pyritons, are found in the 

 Eocene rocks of the mountains near Kalabagh, and are largely mined. They are 

 burned six or eight months in kilns thirty or forty feet high, and leached in vats of 

 baked clay ; the liquor is boiled in iron pans and mixed with " jumsan" (a mixture 

 of sulphate of soda and salt, an efflorescence of the soil in many parts of the low 

 lands), and left to settle and crystalize in vats ; the crystals are washed with cold 

 water, and melted in an iron pan in theii: own water of crystallization; the liquid is 

 poured into earthen jars where it crystallizes, and finally the uncrystallized portion is 

 poured oft", the jar is broken apart, and the alum is ready for sale. About twenty 

 3^ears ago its manufacture amounted to more than 400 tons a year ; and it had been 

 carried on by one family for eight generations. 



6. Saltpetre. — Saltpetre is said to be leached from 1)iack soil at se^'eral places a 

 dozen or twenty miles south-west of Kalabagh on the west side of the Indus. 



7. Coal. — Thin beds of brown coal, with the look sometimes of good l^tuminous 

 coal, are found in the Eocene rocks of the Salt Knnge, especially near Pind Dadun 

 Khan ; and in the alum shales of Kalabagh. These last beds of coal are very thin 

 and irregular ; but the others sometimes reach a thickness of two feet towards the 

 east, and one of them becomes even three feet thick with good coal at one jjoint 

 fifteen miles northeast of Pind Dadun Khan. The beds, however, would not seem 

 to keep of one thickness for any distance, and are on the whole of little value. 



8. Gfold. — Gold has been washed from the miocene sands along the Indus, near 

 Mukhud and elsewhere ; and is found in almost invisible scales. Towards the head- 

 waters of the Indus the scales are said to be much larger. Thirty years ago th^-e 

 were about 300 gold washers between Attok and Kalabagh, and each one earned 

 about ten cents a day. They used a pick, shovel, sieve, cradle, wooden platter (for 

 panning out) and quicksilver. The gold on the Indus is said to be somewhat whiter 

 than that found further east. The washings are richest after heavy rains, that bring- 

 down fresh sand from the neighboring rocks to the bi'ooks. 



9. Copper. — Small concretionary balls of copjjcr ore, chiefly sulphuret of copper 



A. p. S. - VOL. XV. J). 



