In the mountains near Khurd Kabul, about thirty miles from Kabul, thin seams of new coal have been found outcropping. There are several seams deposited one on the other, and they vary in thickness from a sixteenth of an inch to eight or nine inches, and are separated by thin layers of clay, the thicker seams of coal being lower than the thinner ones. In some cases three inches in thickness of the strata show about twelve different deposits of carbonaceous matter, and point to various short periods of inundation following in rapid succession. Throughout Afghanistan the strata are in a most disturbed condition, and in innumerable places veins of ore, which are rich in metal, are found outcropping on the mountain sides. Ores of copper, lead, silver, zinc, tin, nickel, etc., are numerous. Gold is found in the sand of several of the northern rivers, and it is said the river Oxus is rich in it too. Gold-bearing quartz was found within a couple of miles of Kandahar, but it has been exhausted. Samples which have been kept of the gold embedded in a matrix of quartz show the mine to have been a rich one, and it is said that large quantities of gold were obtained from it by former Amirs. Many of the copper ores sent me to assay were very rich in metal, and samples containing thirty to forty per cent. of copper were common, and there were others with about sixty per cent. of metal, while in some of the veins of ore native copper was present. Lead ores of over seventy per cent. of metal are worked to obtain the required quantity of lead for bullet-moulding, and one lead ore which was sent me for assay contained a little over ten per cent. of silver. In the Sher Darwaza Heights is a vein of copper ore which runs throughout its length, outcropping here and there, but it is a thin seam and rather poor in metal, as compared with other ores round about, but the percentage is enough to pay handsomely for its working. In other parts of the mountains round Kabul, however, are veins of copper ore of sufficient extent and richness to supply the requirements of Europe for several years, and if the country was thoroughly prospected, it is probable that the existence of still further deposits would be revealed.