1 3 Burnes, i. 52;
2 Elph. Acc. of
3 Caubul, 80;
4 Jameson, 203.
5 1 tn Elph, 640.
6 2 Elph. Ace. of
7 Caubul, 36, 37.
8 168 SALT RANGE.
9 The Salt range is remarkably barren. ‘‘ Vegetation is scanty,
10 and the bold and bare precipices, some of which rise at once from
11 the plain, present a forbidding aspect of desolation.”® About
12 lat. 32° 50’, long. 71° 40’, the Indus traverses this range, making
13 its way down a deep, narrow, rocky channel, on the sides of
14 which the salt-beds come to light. Those parts of the range
15 which lie on the west side of the river are denominated by
16 Macartney ! the salt-hills of Kala-Bagh or Karra-Bagh, from the
17 name of the town where its geological structure is most fully
18 exposed to view. Its appearance there is described by Elphin-
19 stone with his usual judgment and power of language. ‘‘ Calla-
20 baugh, where we left the plain, well deserves a minute descrip-
21 tion. The Indus is here compressed by mountains into a deep
22 channel only three hundred and fifty yards broad. The moun-
23 tains on each side have an abrupt descent into the river, anda
24 road is cut along their base for upwards of two miles. It had
25 been widened for us, but was still so narrow, and the rock over
26 it so steep, that no camel with a bulky load could pass. To
27 obviate this inconvenience, twenty-eight boats had been prepared
28 to convey our largest packages up the river. The first part of
29 this pass is actually overhung by the town of Callabaugh, which
30 is built in a singular manner upon the face of the hill, every
31 street rising above its neighbour, and, I imagine, only accessible
32 by means of the houses below it. As we passed beneath, we
33 perceived windows and balconies at a great height, crowded with
34 women and children. The road beyond was cut out of the solid
35 salt at the foot of cliffs of that mineral, in some places more than
36 one hundred feet high above the river. The salt is hard, clear,
37 and almost pure. It would be like crystal were it not in some
38 parts streaked and tinged with red. In some places salt-springs
39 issue from the foot of the rocks, and leave the ground covered
40 with a crust of the most brilliant whiteness. All the earth, par-
41 ticularly near the town, is almost blood-red, and this, with the
42 strange and beautiful spectacle of the salt rocks, and the Indus
43 flowing in a deep and clear stream through lofty mountains past
44 this extraordinary town, presented such a scene of wonder as is
45 seldom to be witnessed.” ?
46 The rocks in this part of the range are—first, magnesian
47 limestone ; second, new red sandstone; third, fossiliferous sand-
48 stone; fourth, red clay and sandstone, containing coal and mine-