'The Transactions of the Bombay Geographical Society. From January 1863 to December 1864. (Edited by the Secretary.) Volume XVII.' [‎254] (429/524)

254
REMARKS ON THE PORT OF LING AH,
Salt hills occupy a part of the island near the middle, and extend i - 11
from the southern side nearly half way across (see sketch opposite). |o«» a
Those hills cover an area of about 25 square miles. 4 hey are from
two to five hundred feet high, and though at present divided by nar-
row and deep ravines, they have every appearance of having been
originally one solid mass ; for the layers of salt are horizontal, and one
ravine may be seen at present in the process of formation. This is a
cave some hundred and fifty feet high, with the bed of a stream run
ning through it towards the sea- The roof is continually falling in, and
from being an enormous cave it will become in time a small ravine.
While the salt was being dissolved from the surface, the impurities
were left, and now cover the tops of the hills, as thatch does a house,
and supposing no earthly deposits to have been originally on the top
of this mass, the stratum, judging from the amount of thatch, must
have been three times as thick as the hills are at present high.
Kishm No. 4 contains fragments from this covering. The layers
of salt are horizontal. Some are tinged green, and yellow by sulphur
(No. 5 ), while others are brown, red, and pink (No. fi). Those are
only one inch or so thick, and alternate with pure salt in strata of
from 6 inches to a foot and a half in thickness*
These hills, as they at present stand, are one-third higher than any
other hills on the island, and for 5 miles they lie along the sea beach,
so that it is impossible, if things have always been in their present
position, that the salt could have been formed by a simple deposition
from water.
There, and also on the island of Ormuz amongst the salt, and
confined to it, is a rock (No. 7), blue in colour, and without any dis
tinct stratification, which appears very much like the marl of the rest
of the island, that has been exposed for a long time to a temperature
sufficient to consolidate hut not to vitrify the particles.
On the mainland north from Luft, and near the sulphur caves of
Cameer, is a hill of rock-salt, abutting against a sandstone range, and
bordering on the shore.
Opposite the island of Kishm near Cameer, in the midst of sandstone
and gypsum, is a vein of sulphur (No. 8 ), about one foot and a half m
thickness, running through the gypsum, and near it is a red clay used
for fictile purposes (No. 9 ).