Coutrih lotions to the Ornitliology oj India, 8^x. 109 



the Roman retiarius^ tliey 'cany both net and spear, and if the 

 stroke succeeds, the porpoise is riddled with harpoons before he 

 can break loose. The Mhors not only eat the porpoise, but 

 thejr obtain from it a great deal of a veiy pure oil which 

 fetches a good price, being esteemed throughout Northern 

 India (and I believe not without some .reason) a sovereign reme- 

 dy for rheumatism, sciatica, and similar affections. 



Pelicans, apparently crispus and philippensis, were numerous, 

 but I seemed quite unable to hit them with my rifle. I had 

 several easy shots at between 250 and 300 yards, and always 

 succeeded in missing, — rather humiliating, considering that with 

 this same rifle in former days I used to be absolutely certain of a 

 12-inchL buirs eye. Black stork and huge flocks of grey lag and 

 Indian geese and mallard were seen as usual, but except the 

 latter, of which I bagged four^ long flying sliots, there was no 

 approaching them. 



In the afternoon I went to see the salt-works that are quite sivi 

 generis, at least I have visited almost every salt source in India, 

 and never yet saw any thing so clumsy. The big boats could 

 not go up tlie creek on which these works (of which there are 

 twelve sets, in the villages of Bungola, Bi/dsttr, and Bhaiee-ha- 

 DeJira) are situated, so I got into my punt and went off" to the 

 works, leaving instructions for the big boats to follow the main 

 stream until they reached the southern mouth of the creek. 

 "We rowed about eight miles and landed, and then walked a mile 

 or two to one of the works. Conceive a huge level field, as white 

 as snow, from saline incrustations, the refuse of the manufactory, 

 on which were arranged between three and four thousand 

 clumsy, thick, unglazed earthenware saucers, from 2 to 3 feet 

 in diameter, about 6 inches deep, ranged in double rows with 

 great regularity, round a small tank of brine about 20 by 30 

 and some 6 or 8 feet deep. Out of this tank the brine is painfully 

 ladled in buckets, and evaporated in the saucers, each saucer 

 turning out about 24 crops in the year, and producing during 

 this period from 80 to 100 lbs. of salt. The brine tank is 

 filled by a duct leading from a xo\xg\\Jilter, which is an enclo- 

 sure of mud walls, roofed at about 3 feet from the ground, the 

 roof made of beams, covered thickly with tamarisk boughs. On 

 the top of this, earthy scrapings of the saline efflorescence that 

 abounds in the immediate neighbourhood, are heaped to the 

 depth of some 3 or 4 feet, lixiviated with water (somewhat 

 brackish) raised by a Persian wheel, and the brine thus gener- 

 ated, drips slowly through the roof, and runs into the tanks, 

 where it is allowed to settle and concentrate for a few days be- 

 fore it is used. The washed earth is removed from the filter, and 



