176 SALINAS, OR SALT LAKES. 



tensive salt ponds, which afford an inexliausti- 

 ble supply of this indispensable commodity, 

 not only for the consumption of this pro\ince, 

 but for poi-tions of the adjoining departments. 

 The largest of these Salinas is five or six miles 

 m circumference. The best time to collect 

 the salt is during the dry season, when the 

 lakes contain but little water ; but even when 

 flooded, salt may be scooped up from the 

 bottom, where it is deposited in immense beds, 

 m many places of unknown depth; and, 

 when dried, much resembles the common 

 alum salt. The best, however, which is of 

 superior quality, rises as a scum upon the wa- 

 ter. A great many years ago, a firm causeway 

 was thrown up through the middle of the 

 prmcipal lake, upon which the carretas and 

 mules are driven, and loaded with salt still 

 dnppmg with water. The Salinas are pubHc 

 property, and the people resort to them several 

 times a year,— in caravans, for protection 

 against the savages of the desert in which 

 tliey are leituated. Although this salt costs 

 nothing but the labor of carrying it a^vay, the 

 danger from the Indians and the privations 

 experienced in an expedition to the Salims are 

 such, that It IS seldom sold in the capital for 

 less than a dollar per bushel. On the same 

 ^eatplam stHl a hundred miles further south, 



wu M ^?^^^^^ 'S'«/ma of the same character. 



While I am on this subject, I cannot for 



bea 



mineral sDrinsrs of 



I'^ew Mexico. There are several warm springs 

 0JO8 cahentesl whose waters are generaUy 



