Salt Water 



character of that water, making it sweet or sour 

 or salt, rendering it health-giving or death- 

 dealing. 



Something has been said about the drying 

 away of sea-water, and the leaving of salt 

 behind. A remarkable instance of salt thus 

 left is seen in the Rann of Cutch, a flat Indian 

 plain, about a hundred and ninety miles long, 

 and half as wide. 



During the south-west monsoon the ocean 

 waters are forced by powerful winds up the 

 Gulf of Cutch to a considerable height, over- 

 spreading the Rann, which for a time is turned 

 into a shallow lake. When dry weather comes, 

 the water vanishes, partly retiring, partly 

 evaporating ; and a salt-strewn desert is left, 

 varied by sand-ridges, green spots, and little 

 lakes, but covered principally by " sheets of salt 

 crust." My father, when there many years ago 

 with his Regiment, noted down his impressions 

 of the scene. 



" From this spot " the spot on which he stood 

 "the water is about eight miles distant, the 

 intermediate space being a flat surface, entirely 

 covered a quarter of an inch thick with salt in 

 crystals, looking much like snow, in such quanti- 

 ties that it can be scraped up by the hand 

 c 17 



