302 Dr. R. D. Thomson on the [April 



the religious of the society of Jesus, who had laboured in- 

 defatigably for the conversion of infidels, and had sent 

 some of their number into the island of " Salsete," which 

 contained 66 villages of pagans ; destroyed all their pagodas 

 to the number of 200. # The soil in this neighbourhood is 

 highly improveable, if we may judge from the flourishing 

 appearance of the gardens at Powey, and the quantity of 

 product raised. In the low valley which runs towards the 

 centre of the island, the suface is completely covered with 

 a coating of salt, left by the evaporation of the sea-water, 

 which periodically inundates the low ground. This salt in 

 its impure state is employed as a condiment by most of the 

 natives and naturalized inhabitants of the neighbourhood. 

 Without drawing any very general or sweeping conclusions, 

 from the fact of the existence of a recent salt deposit in this 

 situation, we cannot fail to remark, that an extensive 

 formation is actually in the course of being produced, for 

 the product of the disintegrated rocks, will obviously be 

 spread successively over each saline residuum, and as each 

 new bed is laid, the subtrata will acquire additional firm- 

 ness and solidity, combined with the agency of the high 

 mean temperature, which the most trivial observer will 

 detect as a powerful agent in tropical countries, in binding 

 together the most arid particles. f 



This valley is formed by a break in the continuity of the 

 basaltic ridge, the southern portion of which terminates here, 

 but resumes its altitude and course near Tanna. The vale 

 is overlooked by the hill which forms the extremity of the 

 ridge. The ruin of a Portuguese chapel crowns its summit, 

 consisting of the basalt, (a gray rock with augite crystals 

 interspersed, which forms its foundation, No. 1.) At the 

 base of the ridge near the shore is a similar ruin, built of 

 porphyry, and at each of them there is a corresponding 



* " Portugues Asia, by Manuel de Faria y Sousa, translated from the Spanish 

 by Capt. John Stevens," Lond. 1695, 3 tomes, 8vo., tome iii. p. 14. tome ii. 

 p. 258. The original title of the work is Asia Portuguesa, 3 torn. fol. Lisboa, 

 1666-75. 



t Some distinguished Geologists have attributed the colour of the red sand 

 stone to the ferruginous parts of the porphyry, from whose -disintegration, they 

 consider this formation to be derived. Humboldt Essai geognostique sur le 

 Gisement des roches, 2nd Edit. Paris, 1826, p. 203. 



