214 LAKES. 



which Mr. Elphinstone's party drank dry almost in an in- 

 stant after their arrival. The wells are lined with masonry. 

 The natives have a method of covering them with boards 

 heaped with sand, that eflectually conceals them from an 

 enemy ; so that scarcity of water is at once their wo and 

 protection. Mr. Elphinstone notices a magnificent well of 

 line water under the walls of the fort of Bikaneer, 300 feet 

 deep, and fifteen or twenty-two feet in diameter. Four 

 • buckets, each drawn by a pair ot oxen, were worked at once ; 

 . and when a bucket was let down its striking the water made 

 a noise like a great gun. In India, as in other countries, | 



water might be brought from below in such quantity as to I 



fertilize arid and desert tracts, especially if advantage were 1 



taken of the clay and marl so often niet with during the " 



sinking of shafts and pits. 



A curious mode of sinking wells is mentioned by Heber, 

 as being employed by the natives of the country between 

 Agra and Jyepore. They build a tower of masonry of the 

 diameter required, and twenty or thirty feet high from the 

 surface of the ground. This they allow to stand a year or 

 more, till its masonry is rendered firm and compact by time, 

 then gradually undermining it, the whole tower sinks with- 

 out difficulty in the sandy soil. When level with the surface 

 they raise its wall higher, and so go on, throwing out the 

 .sand and raising the wall, till they have reached the water. 

 If they adopted our method, the soil is so light that it would 

 fall in before they could possibly raise the wall from the 

 bottom ; nor without the wall could they sink to any con- 

 siderable depth. 



LAKES. 



In India the waters of the land are principally distributed 

 in the form of rivers and springs, lakes being"of but rare 

 occurrence, and the few that do appear of inconsiderable 

 size. Some of these lakes are salt, others fresh, and a few 

 owe their chief characters to carbonate of soda. 



Salt Lakes. — A salt lake, twenty miles long by one and a 

 half broad, occurs near Samber,"a Rajpoot town in north 

 latitude 26° 53', and longitude E. 74° 57'. The salt from 

 this lake supplies a considerable portion of Upper India, and 

 during the Mogul government it was carried as far as Be- 

 nares and Bahar. Every year after the rains the water be- 



