136 NEW TRACKS IN NORTH AMERICA. 
the rock islands in the harbour, and through the narrow 
channel into the clear, calm Gulf of California. 
On the third day from our departure, we stopped at 
Carmen Island, close to the opposite shore (the coast of the 
Lower Californian peninsula), to take on board a cargo of | 
salt and oysters. We were immediately surrounded by 
lighters, full of Yaqui Indians who labour on the Salt Lake, 
and I went ashore in one of them. 
Carmen Island is worth a visit. It was purchased from 
President Juarez, during the Mexican war, by an American 
land company, which also bought nearly the whole peninsula 
at a great bargain, as it was when sold more than probable 
that Maximilian would have gained the day. Of this huge 
estate, the island we had just reached is the richest prize. 
Close to the shore, but partitioned off from the sea by a 
narrow strip of shingly beach over which the water never 
flows, is a lake covering an area of about six square miles, 
the bottom of which is composed of pure white crystals of 
salt—chloride of sodium—without any admixture or adultera- 
tion in the shape of sand, algee, or other salts. Usually no 
water covers this area, and the salt has only to be raked up, 
packed in large sacks, and shipped to San Francisco. Here it 
is ground and sold, without any purification, as the’ finest 
table salt.. Holes have been dug ten feet deep through pure 
crystals of salt. How much deeper they extend I could not 
ascertain, for the Indians only scrape as much from the 
surface as they require for exportation. Fine volcanic moun- 
tains form a semicircle around this lake ; and when it rains, 
the drainage from them flows into the basin and covers the 
entire surface to the depth of a few inches. When I visited 
this spot it was covered with water; I tried to cross it, 
but the salt crystals were too sharp for my bare feet. As soon 
si aciaiaae 
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