s, and trans-Indus by the lines mentioned
above, is of a more varied character. Time worn though the Salt Range
has become by the waste of ages, it still rises at Sakesar, near its
western extremity, to a height of 5000 feet. The eastern part of the
range is mostly in the Jhelam district, and there the highest point is
Chail (3700 feet). The hill of Tilla (3242 feet), which is a marked
feature of the landscape looking westwards from Jhelam cantonment, is on
a spur running north-east from the main chain. The Salt Range is poorly
wooded, the dwarf acacia or _phulahi_ (Acacia modesta), the olive, and
the _sanattha_ shrub (Dodonea viscosa) are the commonest species. But
these jagged and arid hills include some not infertile valleys, every
inch of which is put under crop by the crowded population. To geologists
the range is of special interest, including as it does at one end of the
scale Cambrian beds of enormous antiquity and at the other rocks of
Tertiary age. Embedded in the Cambrian strata there are great deposits
of rock salt at Kheora, where the Mayo mine is situated. At Kalabagh
the Salt Range reappears on the far side of the Indus. Here the salt
comes to the surface, and its jagged pinnacles present a remarkable
appearance.

~Country north of the Salt Range.~--The country to the north of the Salt
Range included in the districts of Jhelam, Rawalpindi, and Attock is
often ravine-bitten and seamed with the white sandy beds of torrents.
Generally speaking it is an arid precarious tract, but there are fertile
stretches which will be mentioned in the descriptions of the districts.
The general height of the plains north of the Salt Range is from 1000
feet to 2000 feet above sea level. The rise between Lahore and
Rawalpindi is just over a thousand feet. Low hills usually form a
feature of the landscape, pleasing at a distance or when softened by the
evening light, but bare and jagged on a nearer view. The chief hills are
the Margalla range between Hazara and Rawalpindi, the Kalachitta and the
Khairimurat hills running east and west through Attock and the very dry
and broken Narrara hills on the right bank of the Indus in the same
district. Between the Margalla and Kalachitta hills is the Margalla pass
on the main road from Rawalpindi to the passage of the Indus at Attock,
and therefore a position of considerable strategical importance. The
Kalachitta (black and white) chain is so called because the north side
is formed of n