SUB-AERIAL FORMATIONS AND SOILS. 253 



The last of the exceptional kinds of soil are the soda and potash 



„ . . soils, which are, however, but very little developed 



Saline soils. _ _ ^ 



within our area. Large quantities of the alkaline 

 salts occur in some of the other soils, especially in the regur, as is proved 

 by the highly saline character of the waters of some of the streams 

 draining large spreads of it. 



The most important of these is the Don river, the waters of which are so 

 saline as to be undrinkable except in flood-time. The D6n is called a '^salt- 

 water river " on many maps — a name which conveys an exaggerated idea 

 of the salinity of its waters, which may best be described as very brackish 

 during the hot weather. The source of the salt must be deep-seated, for the 

 regur, which occupies the main part of the valley, is famous for its fertility. 

 It bears immense crops of jowari {SorgJium vulgar e), and was formerly 

 known as the granary of Bijapore, and its fertility has become proverbial in 

 a Canarese saying, which asks — "If the crop of the Don valley fails, 

 who shall eat? if it ripen, who shall eat (it) ?" The large nala 

 which flows into the Don from the north-east at Talikot is even more 

 brackish than the river itself, and parts of its bed when dry are crusted 

 over with a thick layer of impure salt. 



Other very highly saline streams are the Hiralla Naddi, which 

 drains the great regur-spread north-east of Ling Sugur, and the large 

 nala rising in the Agani-Kembhavi valley west of Sorapur. A 

 large quantity of salt is raised at Baichubal (Bychubal), on the banks 

 of the last-named nala, from brine springs, by means of wells sunk 

 below the regur surface to the depth of 120' according to Colonel 

 Meadows Taylor, who mentions also that crystals of gypsum and 

 sulphate of soda (Glauber salts; are brought up from these wells.'^ The 

 water in many villages standing on the regur spreads is of very bad 

 quality, — almost undrinkable indeed, — e. g., at Agani on the southern 



* I was accidentallj prevented from visiting the Baichubal brine-pits. 



( 253 ) 



