Page:Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal Vol 7, Part 1.djvu/600

Koh-i-Daman, and when you have arrived at the summit of this and attempt to go north you again meet with this same slaty belt of thirty miles in thickness, which must be traversed before you reach the granite core of Hindu Kdsh. In short to attempt a generalization more exten- sive perhaps than I am strictly warranted in offering, though derived from many sections in various directions, I would say, that an observer in passing south, from the top of Hindu Kush, to the parallel of Kdlabdgh, would see first a core of granite with coating of slate, as in the grand mountain chain ; next a core of slate with a coating of limestone as at At' tok and Khairabdd ; then ancient hills of limestone, hard, blue, and non- fossiliferous, as in the ridge between Peshdwar and Kohat; then a core of more modern limestone (fossiliferous) with a coating of new red sand- stone as in the hills south of Kohat, and then would find himself amongst aluminous clay, sulphur, gypsum, bituminous shale and rock-salt which occur near Lachi, Ismdel Khail and Teri, and are thence continued south to the parallel I have mentioned terminating the groupe. Respecting the slate I shall only add that north of the Rush it ap- peared to be by no means of the same extent or importance. After passing the granite I have mentioned at Saighan, I again came on it ; but it did not exceed four or five miles in breadth, and its place seemed occupied by silicious sandstone and fossiliferous sandstones which here are of immense depth ; as however I have rather turned than crossed the ridge in my way to Turkistdn, I have not examined it at each side and under similar circumstances. Subordinate to the slate formation, limestone both primitive and se- condary occurs. The former in vast cliffs overhangs the upper part of the valley of Par wan, and exhibits numerous and large natural cavities, in one of which the water of the valley is engulphed and does not re-appear for a distance of two miles. The general color of the limestone here is of a light gray and striped, but masses of. it which have fallen from above and lie in the water-course are often of a dazzling whiteness. I cannot say I met with any of this same formation in my way up to the pass of Hindu Rush, but an extensive limestone formation which I shall have occasion to notice again, is to be found in the Ghorband valley and affords a matrix in which occur ores of antimony, iron, and lead. Still further west on the Bdmian road near Jubrez, I again met with this same limestone, grey and crystalline, in vertical strata, and running east and west, and I learned that immediately to our south in the hills round Midan it affords quarries of white marble, which it was further said might be had along the back of the whole range west to Herdt and south to Kandahar, At the former of these places it has been worked