64 
Records of the Geological Survey of India. 
[vol. VII, 
Potash-salt from Bast India.* 
A novelty wliicli has become known hel*e through this year’s Universal Exhibition is the 
discovery of Potash-salt bearing strata in the Mayo mines in the Salt-range in the north of 
the Punjab. 
Dr. T. Oldham, who provided and arranged the very interesting exhibition of East 
Indian mineral products, has already made a communication upon the position of the rock- 
salt in those hills in a notice published in the Ver. der Geol. Reichsan8ta.lt, from which it 
appears that this rock-salt group is considei'ed to belong to the Silurian formation, and 
accordingly is the oldest among the known deposits of salt. 
Recently attention was drawn at the above-named salt-works to the occurrence of a salt 
which, by its exceptional hardness, and the more searching examination of the resident 
chemist, Herr Warth, revealed the presence of a considerable proportion of Magnesium and 
Potassium. 
Specimens from this deposit now in the Exhibition, consist of a white or reddish granular 
mixture of Sylvine (Chloride of Potassium) and Ivieserite (Sulphate of Magnesium). 
The Sylvine and the rock-salt can be at once recognised by the cleavage and blow-pipe 
reaction. The Kieserite appears in grains which have a maximum diameter of 12 mm. 
It is colorless, and possesses the same hardness and cleavage as that given by me for the 
Hallstadt mineral.f In places the Kieserite appears also to be compact. 
The contained water amounts to 12'99 p. c. exactly, thus agreeing with the calculated 
amount 13'04. 
From the Kieserite in a moist atmosphere changing into Epsomite, the samples in which 
that ingredient predominates become quite disintegrated at the surface, and exhibit a con¬ 
stantly deciduous coating. Man}- pieces consist almost exclusively of Sylvine. Whether also 
some Kieserite occurs in these samples, as may bo conjectured in such an association, does 
not yet appear, since I have only been able to submit small pieces to examination. 
The discovery of this Sylvine-bearing salt-band cannot fail to arouse attention in Eng¬ 
land, since, in spite of the difficulties of transport, a profitable exploitation is possible. 
T. 
Notes on the Geology of the neighbourhood of Mari Hill Station in the 
Punjab, by A. B. Wynne, f. g. s., &c. 
The outer Ilimalaj-an hills on the borders of the Northern Punjab present a marked 
alteration in the general direction of the Indian frontage of these mountains. The prevalent 
north-westerly strike of the Western Himalaya is here lost, and this most northerly corner 
of the Indian Empire is embayed between the approaching masses of the Himalaya, Hindoo 
Koosh, and Suliman ranges, the outworks of which have various westerly and northerly 
directions. On the Himalayan side, as noticed by Mr. Medlicott (Mem. Geol. Sur., Vol. Ill, 
pt. 2, p. 90), in the valley of the Jhilam river, the hills to the eastward possess the normal 
north-westerly strike, while on the opposite side of the valley they run in directions nearly 
at right angles to the former. On one of the most lofty of the minor ridges closing in 
this Jhilam valley to the west is situated the hill station of Mari, at an elevation of 
more than 7,000 feet above the sea. 
' Translated from the Jahrbueh der K. K, Geologischeu Eeichsanetalt, XXIII, No. 2, p. 136.—V. 13. 
t Sitzungsber. J. Wiener, Akad. Bd. LXIII, p. 305, 
