OF SEVERAL PARTS OF WESTERN ASIA. 407 



end of the lake, without producing very marked effects at the 

 other end. 



Whence comes the extreme saltness of this lake ? A few 

 facts will, I think, give a satisfactory reply to this question. In 

 the first place, the country to the east and north of the lake con- 

 tains some of the most remarkable deposits of rock salt in the 

 world. Large beds of it occur near Tabreez, in Red mountain ; 

 and from that mountain there comes down a stream, " several 

 rods wide, of salt water ; not so salt as the water of the lake, but 

 too salt for comfortable use, though the natives do use it, which 

 runs into the lake. Its name is Ajee chai, bitter, or brackish 

 river." This mountain is about forty miles from the lake ; but 

 a salt plain extends from thence to the lake. Another bed of 

 rock salt at Khoy, is only eight or ten miles from the north end 

 of the lake. Here, then, we have an abundant source of the com- 

 mon salt in its waters. Its other ingredients may be derived 

 from the remarkable mineral springs in its vicinity. 



" At one locality," says Mr. Perkins, " about twenty miles south 

 of Tabreez, and the same distance from the lake, near the village 

 of Leewan, three springs issue within tlie space of eight yards of 

 one another, and every one strikingly different in the quality of its 

 waters from the others. One is hot, a second is acid, and a third is 

 sulphureous, and highly fetid. And a few rods from these springs, 

 on the opposite side of a stream, is a fourth, whose waters are im- 

 pregnated with iron." 



On the eastern shore of the lake, and quite near it, are the re- 

 markable springs that deposit the famous calcareous alabaster, 

 called Tabreez marble, which I shall notice more particularly 

 further on. On the southeast shore of the lake, is another spring, 

 which evolves carbonic acid, and deposits marble to some ex- 

 tent. On the west side of the lake, is a sulphur spring, about 

 fifteen miles north of the city of Oroomiah. About thirty-five 

 miles north of that place, on the north side of the mountain, be- 

 tween the district of Salmas and Oroomiah, is a hot sulphur 

 spring, greatly resorted to by the natives, and depositing marble. 

 It is four or five miles from the lake, is called Issee Soo, that is, 

 hot water; and the present Prince Governor is now fitting up an 



