PAUT 3.] 
203 
llacliel: Sail in Rajpulaiia. 
the deposition of tlic Viudliyans, in wLicli case the Arvali scries would bo of very 
ancient date, probably Cambrian. 
The favourite theory to account for the origin of the salt in Rajputanais, that 
the rocks of the Arvalis belong to the “ Permian system,” which is confounded 
with the saliferous rocks of England ; and that the salt of this region is derived 
from some of these beds as yet undiscovered, being dissolved by the rains and 
rivers and rodeposited in the shallow lakes. 
I have already shown that both the Viudliyans and Arvalis arc older than the 
permian; but this would not di,sposo of the assumption that either one or both 
of these series might contain .salt bods. As tlie lower beds of the Arvali series 
arc covered by the alluvium and blown sand in the neighbourhood of the Siimbhar 
and Didwana lakes, it is impossible to say that salt beds do not exist in that 
position; but it is evident, from the wide distribution of the salt, that it could 
not be derived and distributed in the alluvium from one or two local sources, 
and therefore, if the origin of the salt be in the rock, its occurrence there must be 
frequent, aud the probabilities of detecting it (or traces of it) in situ would bo 
very great. 
I have examined a very large area occupied by the Arvali scries, from the 
extreme northern end of the Arvali range to within a short distance of Mt. Abu, 
without finding any trace of a salt deposit, notwithstanding the numerous com¬ 
plete sections of the series that arc exposed, from the gneiss to the highest 
known beds. 
There seems even less probability of salt escaping detection in the Vindhyans; 
for in the very large area covered by them in this region, both to the south-east 
and to the north-west of the Arvali range, the whole formation is exposed, from 
its very base, wdthout any contortions to favour the concealment of peculiar beds, 
yet no ti’acc of a salt de^iosit has been observed. * 
The artificial lakc.s, wells, aud rivers afford stronger evidence that the salt 
is not derived from either the Arvalis or the Vindhyans. There arc several 
large artificial lakes and tanks within the range at elevations greater than that 
of the plains. The principal of these arc the Ana Sagar at Ajniere, situated in 
an eroded anticlinal fold of the Arvali strata in the centre of the range, Pohkar 
lake near the western side, and the Rae Samand at Kankroli on the eastern side 
of the range. The water supplying these as well as the numerous smaller tanks 
of the range flows over more or less complete sections of the Arvali rocks, aud i.s 
in all of them sweet. 
Of the numerous wells sunk in the Arvali rocks of the range, I do not remem¬ 
ber that the water in any of them was brackish. 
The Luni river, and its numerous tributaries draining the greater portion 
and a long length of the Arvali range, contain sweet water as far as the western 
edge of the range; but after flowir g some distance over the plain to tlje w'est, 
the water becomes saline, and salt is deposited on the banks in the hot season, 
when the rivers cease to flow.- At Pachbadra, 3.5 miles south-west of Jodh- 
porc, large quantities of salt arc manufactured in a valley near to, and probably 
an old bed of, the Luni. The Banas river aud its tributaries flowung to the 
