OF SEVERAL PARTS OF WESTERN ASIA. 405 



taken from the north end of the lake ; and it may be his was 

 obtained from some other part, where springs abounding in sul- 

 phates empty into the lake. The small quantity of lime which I 

 found, may have had a similar origin. I tested for iodine with- 

 out success ; but chlorine gave distinct indications of the presence 

 of bromine. 



The near approach to saturation of this water with common 

 salt, excited the inquiry, which every geologist knows to be one 

 of great interest, whether around the shores, or at the bottom of 

 this lake, there may not be permanent deposits of that salt. Mr. 

 Perkins has pursued the inquiries which I put to him on this 

 subject in a very judicious and satisfactory manner. I give the 

 result in his own words : 



" The water of the lake rises every spring from three to five or 

 six feet, during the annual freshets from rains, and the melting of 

 snow on the surrounding mountains : and, as these cease, the lake 

 gradually subsides to its summer level. In most places the land 

 near the lake is flat, and but a fevr feet higher than the ordinary 

 surface of the water. It is, therefore, extensively overflowed in the 

 spring ; and as the waters of the lake gradually subside, a very thin 

 incrustation of salt is left on the land thus overflowed. This coat, 

 however, is so thin, that it is difiicult to collect it without a mixture 

 of mud and sand." 



" To procure salt clean and in large quantities, small ridges or in- 

 trenchments are made, eight or ten inches high, enclosing from one 

 to four acres each, as the surface is more or less sloping. These 

 ridges detain a sufficient depth of water, when the body of the lake 

 retires, to deposit a layer of pure white salt (No. 225,) from one to 

 three and a half inches thick, which crystallizes by the evaporation 

 of a summer's sun. No other labor is required until the salt is to 

 be collected. Over many miles of these flats, thus covered with a 

 pure sheet of snow-white salt, I have rode to-day." 



" The natives tell me that all the salt, which is not collected, 

 (whether within or without the little ridges thrown up as entrench- 

 ments,) disappears during the rains and snows of the year." 



" The natives also say, that for the last five or six years, from 

 some cause unknown to them, the mean level of the waters of the 

 lake has been several feet higher than formerly. And some say 



