162 
J. F. Garwood —Ancient mounds in the Quetta District. [No. 3, 
There is a very large mound near Kila Abdullah in the Peshin plain 
at the foot of the Klioja Amran mountains. In 1881 Capt. (now Major) 
Lock, Political Agent, Peshin, dug into this mound under the orders of 
Col. Sir Oliver St. John, K. C. S. I., It. E. Major Lock is on furlough, 
but Sir 0. St. John has kindly supplied me with his recollections, which 
I will give as nearly as possible in his own words. 
“ Underneath layers of mud, charcoal, or rather charred wood, and 
bones were a number of small rooms built of very large baked bricks, as 
far as I can recollect about 18 inches by 10 inches by 6 inches. These 
bricks had no markings or inscriptions of any sort.” 
“ In the rubbish were found fragments of pottery, hits of glass, 
copper, brass and iron. Two at least of the fragments of pottery had 
been bottoms of basins or round dishes and were glazed yellow, with 
indented and separately coloured figures on them, in both cases, of men 
leading goats. The best of the two I gave to the British Museum in 
1881. What became of the rest of the things I do not know. The 
excavations were incomplete when I left.” 
The Quetta Miri is a mass of indurated clay. On the top were 
a few old houses, probably occupied formerly by the maliks of the 
village or small township of Shalkot, the houses of which were group¬ 
ed together under the shadow of the Miri. In 1883, before I came 
to the district, the base of the mound was cut into for a magazine, 
and previously to that some tunnels had been run well into the mound. 
Nothing of particular interest seems to have been found, or my prede¬ 
cessors would have left some record of it. Some bones I hear were come 
across, including some human bones, the only ones found at any time 
recently in the mound. 
About a year ago I commenced clearing the top of the Miri for somo 
buildings. This necessitated cutting the top 15 feet off the mound, besides 
excavating in places to an extra depth of about 5 feet or 20 feet in all. 
During these excavations one could not fail to be struck with the peculiar 
constitution of the material of which the mound is composed. In every 
direction the soil is permeated by bones, broken pottery, ashes in layers, 
and charred wood or charcoal. The bones arc said to bo the bones of 
domestic animals, but of what animals I do not know at present, but 
have sent samples to Calcutta for identification by competent anatomists. 
Tho remains got comparatively few ns the depth increased, but were 
always present in considerable numbers. Near tho top very large 
jallus or gluvf&n frequently occurred; no such articles of pottery are 
I believe now made in tho district. The general impression, left on tho 
minds of those of us who were constantly presold during the earth 
clearance, was not that the remains were necessarily of any very high 
