Notes on the Birds of the Sambhur Lake 8f its viciuity. 363 



and-wliite youug, march along, and invariably here from west to 

 east, all wag-g-ing- their down-bent heads in search of the animal- 

 cules with which the brackish water abounds. If " Alice in 

 Wonderland-'^ after her game of croquet with the flamingo for a 

 mallet could have seen such a sight, she would have been sorely 

 puzzled to account for the gigantic game which was apparently 

 going on amongst the mallets on their own account. 



A peculiar form of animalcule, about half an inch in length, 

 is the only form of animal life which has yet been observed in 

 the lake. These die off" as the brine approaches saturation, and 

 their dying off was formerly looked for by the practical salt- 

 makers as a sign that salt would soon form. Before dying off, 

 they deposit immense layers of eggs, in some places over an 

 inch in thickness, and these are hatched at the commencement 

 of the annual rains. 



The length of time during which birds frequent the lake 

 much depends on the depth of water and the heat required for 

 its evaporation. When the animalcules disappeai', many of the 

 swimmers and waders go off or frequent, for a time, the fresh 

 or brackish ponds in the neighbourhood ; still many flamingoes 

 remain, but what they manage to subsist on up till March or 

 the middle of April — when the lake contains only a concentrated 

 solution of brine, or masses of salt — I am quite unable to say. 



Immediately after such rainfalls as I have above referred to, 

 the specific gravity of the lake-brine is slightly less or just 

 equal to that of sea-water, viz., 1'03, and this goes on increasing 

 in density until it reaches the specific gravity of a saturated 

 solution of salt, viz., 1*2046, about the end of February. 



When the brine has reached a specific gravity of I'OS, a por- 

 tion of it is cut off from the main body by low walls of mud 

 and grass, and from these enclosures our salt supply is obtained. 

 About the middle of March the salt extraction commences and 

 continues until the rains set in. The salt forms, in a crust over 

 two inches thick, on the fcetid lake mud, which is about a foot 

 in depth. The laborers place their open hands between the 

 layer of salt and the mud, and toss the salt into small heaps, 

 and this is carried to the stores which are situated above the 

 high-water level. There is generally a good deal of moisture 

 in the crust, and the instant it falls from the laborers' 

 hands, each crystal becomes detached, and shows the truncated 

 pyramidal form which is so peculiar to the Sambhur Salt. 



This work has to be done in the early morning, as the salt and 

 the mud become so hot about 8 a. m. as to be quite unbearable. 



A walk barefoot through one of these salt fields is somewhat 

 novel and exciting ; I have tried snow shoes, long boots, and 

 long stockings, but have found none of them equal to the bare 



