112 M. Beudant's Travels in Hungary, 



and treat him besides with wine, my generosity was not 

 thrown away, for, instead of oxen and Wallachians, I had four 

 good horses and a well-behaved guide, with whom I advanced 

 rapidly to Teglas. 



At Teglas I had a letter for M. De Bek, who happened to 

 be absent. I was kindly entertained, however, by madame de 

 Bee, with whom I found two French, or rather Belgian young 

 ladies, her relations, that agreeably brought my own country 

 to recollection. Before dinner I promenaded the gardens, 

 and had only one fault to find, their being in a plain perfectly 

 level. 



Previous to my entering Debretzin, the aspect appeared 

 barren and cheerless, and at the return of day, my judgment 

 of it was still more unfavourable, as most of the houses have 

 but one story, and if two or three, here and there have two 

 stories, the buildings, in forming a comparative estimate, 

 would be little valued in any other scene. The streets are 

 not paved, and already, though the season was not far advanc- 

 ed, and the rains had only lasted a few days, it was hardly 

 possible to pass from the middle of the street to the houses 

 without considerable deviations, to find some fragments of a 

 causeway. 



Natron is found in abundance in the environs of Debretzin, 

 in a state of solution, among the marshes and lakes that spread 

 on all sides of the plain. It is found, more or less, from the 

 plains of Szathmar, to those in the comitats of Bacs and 

 Pest, also in those of Stuhlweissenburg and CEdenburg, but 

 more particularly between Debretzin and Nagy Varad, where 

 it has been obtained a long time, from several lakes that get 

 dry in summer, the salt then appears on the ground. This 

 saline efflorescence, in the middle of summer, looking like heaps 

 of snow, has procured them the name of white lakes in 

 Hungary. The salt, when taken away, is reproduced every 

 three or four hours, and this lasts through the tine season. 

 Magazines are formed of it at Debretzin, both for exportation, 

 and the manufacture of soap. The annual produce is more 

 than 10,000 quintals, and there is no doubt of its being made 

 much more considerable, were attention paid to-some very rich 

 lakes that are at a greater distance. 



The existence of nitron in the middle of plains, in the waters 

 of the lakes and marshes that cover them, is one of the most 

 interesting facts in geology, but the least known. It is a phe- 

 nomenon not exhibited only in Hungary; it occurs in the 

 immense deserts that overspread different parts of our globe* 

 From what we know of this mineral production, as discovered 

 in Egypt, in Arabia, Persia, the Indies, Thibet, China, Siberia, 



