Chap. 39.] THE VAEIOUS KINDS OE SALT. 501 



of Scythia, the other on that of Ariana, Doth of which throw 

 up vast quantities of salt.^' So, too, at Citium, in Cyprus ; and, 

 in the vicinity of Memphis, they extract salt from the lake 

 and dry it in the sun. The surface-waters of some rivers, also, 

 condense ^'-^ in the form of salt, the rest of the stream flowing 

 beneath, as though under a crust of ice ; such as the running- 

 waters near the Caspian Gates ^^ for instance, which are known 

 as the ''Rivers of Salt.'' The same is the case, too, in the vici- 

 nity of the Mardi and of the people of Armenia. In Bactriana, 

 also, the rivers Ochus^* and Oxus carry down from the moun- 

 tains on their banks, fragments of salt. There are also in 

 Africa some lakes, the waters of which are turbid, that are 

 productive of salt. Some hot springs, too, produce salt — those 

 at Pagasae for example. Such, then, are the various kinds of 

 salt produced spontaneously by water. 



There are certain mountains, also, formed of native salt ; that 

 of Oromenus, in India, for example, where it is cut out like 

 blocks from a quarry, and is continually reproduced, bringing 

 in a larger revenue to the sovereigns of those countries than 

 that arising from their gold and pearls. In some instances 

 it is dug out of the earth, being formed there, evidently, by 

 the condensation of the moisture, as in Cappadocia for example, 

 where it is cut in sheets, like those of mirror-stone.^^ The 

 blocks of it are very heavy, the name commonlj^ given to them 

 being " mica."®® At Gerrhae,®"^ a city of Arabia, the ramparts 

 and houses are constructed of blocks of salt, which are sol- 

 dered together by being moistened with water. King Ptole- 

 mseus discovered salt also in the vicinity of Pelusium, when 

 he encamped there ; a circumstance which induced other per- 

 sons to seek and discover it in the scorched tracts that lie 

 between Egypt and Arabia, beneath the sand. In the same 



of Badakandir in the Khanat of Bokhara ; and the other the lake that lies 

 between Ankhio and Akeha, in the west of the territory of Balkh, and near 

 the Usbek Tartars. ^^ " Sale exsestuant." 



92 In consequence of the intense heat. 



33 All these regions, Ajasson remarks, are covered with salt. An im- 

 mense desert of salt extends to the north-east of Irak-Adjemi, and to the 

 north of Kerman, between Tabaristan, western Khoracan, and Khohistun. 



9* Identified by Ajasson Avith the Herat and the Djihoun. He thinks 

 that it is of some of the small affluents of this last that Pliny speaks. 



9^ " Lapis specularis." 



96 A " crumb " properly, in the Latin language. 



w See B. vi. c. 32. 



