26 OLDHAM : GEOLOGY OF MANIPUR AND NAGA HILLS. 



57. Salt is in Manipur territory tolerably abundant ; it is derived from 

 brine wells. In evaporating the brine two distinct 

 methods are followed, each spring being evaporat- 

 ed on the principle which has been found to be best suited. In some 

 cases the brine is merely boiled down in open vessels and the resulting 

 crystals wrapped up in small parcels in leaves ; this form of salt appears 

 to be deliquescent ; but most of the Manipuri salt is treated in a very 

 different manner ; the brine is first concentrated in large earthenware 

 vessels standing four feet or more in height and with sides over an inch 

 in thickness but the final desiccation is performed in shallow metal dishes 

 over a quick fire ; the dishes are lined with green leaves and the brine 

 poured on to them, as it solidifies more is added till a cake of half to 

 three-quarters of an inch in thickness is formed, the brine is then dried 

 off completely and the salt turned out in a meniscus shaped cake about 

 nine inches in diameter and three-quarters of an inch thick. The salt 

 prepared in this shape is not deliquescent, and the reason that this process 

 is not uniformly followed seems to lie in the fact that the salt of some of 

 the springs is deliquescent;, in which case it could not retain its shape if 

 formed into cakes. 



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