PART 4 .] 
Ball: Coal in the Luni Patiian Rills. 
157 
On the other hand, as rendering it improbable that such a thick deposit will ever be 
found, three arguments may be enumerated:— 
1 stly .—The experience of all those who have explored, or attempted to work, the coal of 
the same geological age in Siml and the Punjab is against the probability of coal existing in 
large quantity. 
2ndly .—'The country in question has, under Captain Sandeman’s orders, been thoroughly 
searched, and all parts are well known to the different tribes, yet no coal forming a thick 
seam has been discovered. The slight coaly indications, which have in some places been 
observed and pointed out by the Biluchis, testify to the intelligence and care with which 
they have hunted over the ground. 
3rdly .—My own examination of the ground has shown that the geological structure 
warrants the belief that since we have rocks of precisely the same age on the outer or 
eastern slope of the Suliman range as those with which the coal is associated in the Chamar- 
laug valley, the prospect of finding coal at the former locality should be as good as it is at 
the latter; and not only as good primarily, but from the high inclination of the beds, their 
edges being all exposed, very much better. At the same time these outer ranges being 
readily accessible to the people of the plains, many of whom, besides the chiefs, have some 
idea of the value of coal, it seems reasonable to conclude that did a large seam occur, it would 
long ere this have been brought to light. I have above described the character of such coaly 
indications as have been discovered east of the main range, and have pointed out how unim¬ 
portant they are. 
Had the Chamarlang valley been the only locality examined, it might possibly have been 
concluded that boring would he advisable to prove the lower rocks; hut as these lower rocks 
are elsewhere exposed and have yielded no trace of a seam, it may be stated that boring could 
only Involve an almost certain waste of money.* 
For the benefit of non-geological readers, I shall allude here to a theory which was 
mooted in reference to the Lagari coal in the early correspondence, and which theory I have 
known also to be applied to inferior or small deposits of coal of very much greater ago than 
it. This theory is that the coal is not abundant, or is of inferior quality, because it is only 
“in process of formation.” Geological chronology is not yet so far settled as to enable us 
to say how many thousands or millions of years have elapsed since the coal became coal; 
but this wo can positively assert, that since that time the only possible change that can have 
taken place is in the wrong direction, in other words, the abstraction or removal of the 
combustible portions. Nothing short of a miracle, and miracles find no place in the operations 
of nature, could convert the substances in contact with the coal, he they silioious, calcareous, 
or alumiuous, into carbon or bitumen. 
Sulphur.—W hile in the hills I heard of a deposit of sulphur which occurs in the Soree 
pass; subsequently Captain Sandeman obtained some specimens of the crude ore and the ma¬ 
nufactured sulphur. The former proves to be gypsum, which is much penetrated by strings 
of sulphur. This deposit, if not the result of more direct volcanic action, has probably been 
derived from a hot spring, recent or extinct. A hot spring at Pir Zinda in the Soree pass not 
far from where the sulphur was brought is well known and is a place of much resort. 
Close by is a hill called Bindar, which, according to the map, is 2,858 feet high, and stands 
out prominently above the low ranges. The season was unfavorable to my examining that 
part of the country as I should otherwise have done. If this hill should prove to be an 
* I put this somewhat more strongly than in my original report, as since it was written, I had, on the return 
march, an opportunity of examining the lower rocks more closely. 
