MODE OF OBTAINING SALT. 3 



Ala-shan, and is 3,100 feet above the sea ; it is about 

 33 miles in circumference, and encrusted with a layer 

 of pure salt 2 to 6 feet thick. It is remarkable that 

 this natural production should be so little utilised ; 

 only a few dozen Mongols being engaged in the 

 industry of digging the salt out and carrying it on 

 camels to the Chinese towns of Ning-hia-fu and 

 Bautu.^ 



The salt is obtained in the following way : first a 

 thin covering of dust is removed from the surface, 

 the salt is then dug out with iron spades and washed 

 in the water which collects in the excavated holes. 

 It is then poured into bags, and laden on camels, 

 each camel carrying a load of about 3^ cwt. A 

 payment of 50 chokhs,^ or about 2d., is levied on the 

 spot on each camel load, and the same amount is 

 charged for the labour of getting it. A Mongol 

 officer lives at Djaratai-dabas, to inspect the salt 

 industry and receive the income arising from it, 

 which is paid into the treasury of the prince. The 

 latter also earns large sums by his camels, which are 

 hired for the transport of the salt ; nine-tenths of 

 the profits realised are given up to him, leaving 

 only one-tenth to the carrier. The Mongols said 



1 Hue gives a vivid description of a lake-bed of the same kind in 

 the Ordos country, under the name of Dabsoiai-A'iir, or Salt Lake (i. 

 329-331)-— Y. 



^ Chokh or chek, said by Timkovvski to be a corruption of a Mongol 

 term/fli-, is the name which the Russians give to what we call Chinese 

 cash, properly fsien, those copper coins with a hole in the middle 

 which are strung on strings. The old normal equation was one string 

 or 1,000 fsien = I Hang (Ian of the text) or ounce of silver, but now 

 the number varies and is always much more than 1,000. The calcula- 

 tions in the text seem to reckon 1,500 cash to the Hang. — Y. 



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