102 On the Formation of Sulphur in India, 



datore rajah's districts. Hard by is a lake in which I 

 found the confirmation of my researches. It is a narrow 

 lake extending several miles in the direction from south to 

 north along the village, and seems to be every where very 

 shallow. At its southern extremity it communicates with 

 a branch of the Godavery and a salt-water creek, from 

 which it receives its water in the rainy monsoon. 



In the hot season it is nearly dry, and the mud then ex- 

 posed to the sun exhales a disagreeable smell, which at 

 some places I thought was like that of a sulphuret. 



The first excursion I made with my guides was to a 

 place due west of the village, where they went trampling up 

 and down in the water, and at times taking up a handful 

 of mud, which, on examination, certainly had a faint smell 

 of brimstone, but did not at all resemble the substance 

 which had been shown to me some time ago, and which 

 had induced me to make this expensive excursion. 



Under the full impression of disappointment, I was sitting 

 after my fruitless return to the village in my palanquin, 

 scarcely observing that it was surrounded by a number of 

 inquisitive visitors, when on a sudden my attention was at- 

 tracted by the clamorous vociferations of a woman in the 

 pursuit of all my palanquin bearers, who had robbed her 

 little garden of a pumpkin. She appealed to the renter 

 for protection ; but he, like many in his situation in abso- 

 lute power, magnanimously made a present of it to the 

 strangers, who were carrying their booty off in great tri- 

 umph. Unluckily for them, however, I interfered, and 

 ordered them to restore the stolen goods, which brought 

 on a slight but friendly altercation between me and the 

 renter ; and this ended in the payment for the pumpkin, and 

 an offer of all the bystanders to conduct me to the place 

 from which they collected brimstone. 



I then followed a man whom they procuredj'immediatelf 

 to the northern extremity of the lake, where we found 

 without much searching brimstone in small heaps and in 

 abundance. 



I was told that this substance was to be found further 

 north in the same lake, and in small quantities only to the 

 southward, where the lake gets soonest dry. There it is 

 collected in a loose soft form, or in semi-indurated nodules 

 of a grayish yellow colour after it is dry ; and never deeper 

 than a foot from the very surface of the ground on which 

 the water stands. 



This salt lake, I learnt, was but of recent formation. 

 Only fifty years ago, the spot where it is now found was- 



under 



